Diagnosis: Terminal & Needing Him
by Desenchanter
Summary: He was her everything, her soulmate & fiance. Until she got her diagnosis… and ran from him—breaking his heart—only to come back years later to find him engaged again. Even though she was pregnant & needing him she'd let him be another's forever instead?
1. Prologue

**†: Diagnosis: Terminal & Needing Him :†  
><strong>x<strong>_ Prologue_** x  
><strong>**

****-•°•°•-****

The great Taiko Inuyasha, a man of strength, a man she had known all her life. Well, not _all_ of it but long enough that she was certain he was flawless. Untouchable. The strongest man alive. The bravest. The boy that when they were children he would jump down from a tree as if it were nothing, even though he could break some bones. And once did yet never whimpered about it. The boy that could pick up spiders and worms, things that made her squirm, as if they were just grass.

He was invincible.

The boy that she'd get to check and see if there were monsters under her bed whenever he spent the night over, always to hang out with her brother or cousin Shimizu Miroku. She was certain he wouldn't have a problem fighting off the horrors he might find in her closest-she was particularly scared that a vampire was hidden in there to drink her blood when she was six.

He could do anything.

The eleven year old boy who was her hero when she was just ten. She thought all of that and more of him, so when his head was in her lap while she sat on her pink frilly bed in her princess themed room bawling his eyes out she knew that the world was surely about to end. Yet, at the same time, she felt honored that out of all the people he could have gone to he chose her.

He wasn't her best-friend.

The truth was she wished they were, she always admired him, but he always wanted to do _boyish_ things and she liked to play with dolls. He was tight with her cousin, with her brother, but not really with her. They had a lot of tiffs, fussing over this and that with each other, but she didn't realize he thought they were so close that when he needed to cry-something she didn't think he was capable of-he'd come to her. Apparently he did.

He somehow just knew she'd never let him down.

The moment when he gasped for air she swore to herself she'd never disappoint him. Her fingers delicately stroked through his jet black hair, trying to keep the strands from sticking to his tear covered face. When he had come over that night-very late, she had already been in bed-he did the usual thing, he climbed in through the window from the tree in the yard.

He probably just wanted to hang out with her brother.

The fact that he had streaks of tears down his face already made it hard for her to yell at him as she had originally intended for waking her up. Then he just collapsed on her bed to cry all over again. She had crawled into bed and placed his head in her lap so he'd be more comfortable. It all seemed so impossible, that he could cry… but even he was just mortal, not the superman she had imagined.

He was eleven and discovered the pain of loss.

The reality was simple, it wasn't that the world was crashing down around all of them, but that the disease Furei that had been haunting his family had finally taken his mother from him. She had been fighting the illness for a while now but… as soon as she was diagnosed, almost a year ago, everyone knew what it meant. She was terminal. It was incurable.

He had no way of knowing that it would just be the first taste of such damning sorrow.

**Ж**

Genetics played some sort of rule in Furei, though it wasn't a disease that was fully understand much at all. But it was more likely that someone would get it if someone in the family was already diagnosed. That was why when a couple of years later when they were in high school Kagome got another knock on her window in the midst of night to a horror struck Inuyasha she knew something was horribly wrong.

Over the years they had grown closer, she had proven she wouldn't let him down, she never spoke of the night he came to cry in her lap to anyone. It was their little secret, one she treasured, one he'd be ashamed of if it ever got out. In high school they both had a reputation, she was the goody-goody that wouldn't do anything that could get her in trouble and a straight A student. He was the school delinquent that rebelled against the rules and got just good enough grades that he'd be able to get into college. No one got why they were friends, sometimes neither of them really understood it either.

He had two siblings, one an older half-brother who he did not get along with, another a full blooded younger sister. A sister three years their junior but someone Kagome knew well... had been diagnosed with Furei two years ago. When she came to her window she knew what it meant, if she wasn't gone she'd be gone soon.

It wasn't fair that he had to lose two people that he loved, two women of importance in his life, to one illness. Watching him in such anguish… standing by him at the funeral that came, when they were but teens, hand-in-hand made her realize something. Somehow, in that moment, she knew that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him until she, too, was placed into her grave.

The only problem was at the time his other hand was connected with his girlfriend for three years. Her cousin, somehow she got along with splendidly and admired greatly… Higurashi Kikyou.

For him, though, she'd do anything. Even go against blood.

* * *

><p><em><strong>AN:** I've had an idea for this story for a long while and know for a fact it'll be ten chapters long. I have each planned out. This story will be updated once a week, so it'll take ten weeks to finish. _

_I hope you enjoy the story and review._ _Thank you._


	2. Diagnosis

****†:** Diagnosis: Terminal & Needing Him**** :†****  
><em>x Diagnosis x<em>**

**_****-•°•°•-****_**

Fast forward nearly ten years from the day of his sister's funeral and take a preview into their happy lives together. Who would have thought back in high school that the two would end up engaged and living together in the heart of Tokyo? Very few, she knew. Everyone had thought it'd be him and Kikyou but - with absolutely _nothing_ to do with her - those two ended once high school did.

Kikyou went to the University of Kyoto, Inuyasha strangely enough became a good enough student to get into to Tokyo University and Kagome had easily done the same after him. It hadn't been in her nature to try and steal him away from her cousin, though she thought about it often. She constantly found herself thinking about how she could do _this _and _this_ to get his attention away from Kikyou and _that_ and _that_ to keep it but…

When she was just about to do any of that she'd see her cousin's smiling face and reframe herself. It was too hard. Both girl's knew the pain of lose like Inuyasha had, that was why they all could connect. But one thing was sharply different, Kagome still had a grandpa and mother. Kikyou was left with just an aunt, two cousins, and a younger sister. She had lost both her parents in a freak car accident.

It had been when she was young that Kagome had lost her dad to Furei, too. She had gone straight to Inuyasha when it had finally happened and cried to him - he had been completely fine with letting her. He didn't make a single cruel comment about the silliness of girls and their tears to her. And it made her adore him all the more.

Once she began college Inuyasha was already in his second year and loving it - partying a little too hard sometimes.

"If you want to become a medical researcher," she had told him when she forced him to go o the library to study with her, "then you have to get good grades or else you won't get into medical school. You should settle down."

"Of course _you'd_ say that," he grunted back to her with narrowed eyes, "you never like to do anything fun."

"I didn't say you could _never_ go to parties, I'm just saying going to one Thursday night through Monday night isn't your best move."

It pained her that he had always seen her as a party pooper, that she was no fun at all, but she knew that had to be said. After his sister's death his grade's picked up severely merely because he wanted to get into a good school then good medical school so he could research Furei and try to find a cure to it so no one else had to suffer like him. She had thought it a truly admirable goal and encouraged him fully, unfortunately his determination seemed to waver his first year.

Inuyasha was smart, when he tried, but not the type of smart that could get great grades without even studying. That was why he got decent grades his first year instead of perfect ones. All that booze and bimbos that he gave his intention to instead of studying really impaired him.

That all changed once she arrived. She was determined to whip him in shape, not to watch him throw away his chance at doing something great. But there was a problem. She knew _one thing_ that Inuyasha hated most and that thing had been what ended up tearing him and Kikyou apart.

He didn't want to be "fixed" or "changed". He couldn't stand it when people tried to do that, especially if it was his significant other. Which she noted he hadn't had one since he started college. Just a lot of "fuck buddies" as he called it.

"Inuyasha," she had said to him cautiously, which had been enough to get him to look up from his dormitory bed to the girl sitting at his desk. The one that had been nagging him about studying that night instead of going to the party he wanted to. She had been annoying him and he was reaching the point where he'd just snap at her so she knew she had to approach the problem a different way.

And really, she couldn't take him mad at her. Her worst nightmare was him hating her.

"I don't want to change you," she had assured him with a smile, the words that followed just came out, she didn't even think about them until it was too late. It had been said… "I love you the way you are. I know that you'll do great things someday, you just need to focus some. You don't need to _not_ be a party guy you just need to prioritize better."

For a long while he just stared at her and for the life of her she couldn't figure out what gave him that tinge of shock in his auburn eyes. That was why she replayed what she had just said in her head until she found what might have caused it - and her eyes widened, too.

She had just told him she… she loved him? He wouldn't take that the wrong way, would he? He would just think it was a friend's love, right? Though that'd be wrong. She loved him in a completely different way.

Finally, he spoke, "you…? You love me the way I am?"

"Yeah," she said with a very nervous laugh attached to it and a wave of her hand. "You know, like I love the way Miroku is and Souta!"

"So like family?" he questioned cautiously while he sat up and scooted closer to her. "That's why you're always going out of your way to help me, huh? To do stuff for me? Because you think of me like a…? A brother or a cousin or something?"

"Um," she coaxed out for a long time. Did she want to go with that? It wasn't true. She did want a chance with him someday and if she said that then it'd surely end it. If she really did think of him like a brother or cousin she wouldn't have romantic feelings for him. So she swallowed and admitted, "no… I don't."

"Then how do you think of me?"

"Inuyasha," she complained with a pout as she looked away. She felt her chest contort with fear, what if he rejected her? What if he didn't feel the same way? She couldn't… so she said, "let's not do this right now. You need to study."

When she turned her face back towards his her lips meant with his before she could see it coming. She didn't really know what else to do but kiss back - that was what she had wanted for _so long_. The next thing she knew she was under him on his bed, letting his hands run wild across her body and even make a trek up her skirt.

If not for the fact that her cousin Miroku, Inuyasha's _roommate_, came in shortly after with a grin that said 'catch ya'!' then she might have given away her virginity to him that day.

Instead, it took him a month and a half of dates and an 'I love you, too' to get it.

**Ж**

Seven years later he began his residency in a medical lab at Shikon Hospital in Tokyo, she had already been working for three years at the Four Seasons hotel as an Assistant Manager to the resort quality establishment. Her degree had been in Hospitality Management since she thought it would be fun to work in a resort, something that would even allow her to do a little traveling. And they had been living together since she graduated from college.

It seemed so perfect to her. Nothing could get better. They had been going fairly steady for those seven years, except for her semester abroad in France in her last year of school to perfect her French. He considered it a form of abandonment that she left him in his first semester of medical school - when he said he needed her most. She thought he was being selfish, not looking at how great of an advantage it would be for her. To know three languages - French, English, and Japanese - in the hospitality business would be a great asset.

Besides, he knew she always wanted to go to France. One harsh word led to another and they ended up breaking up before she left. That entire semester they went without speaking and she ended up meeting an ever so attractive Frenchmen that helped her pass the time while in Paris. Jacques Roux, and he was ever so handsome.

Also, the only other man she had ever had sex with… but as soon as she arrived home Inuyasha was at the airport waiting to pick her up with Souta and Miroku. It had surprised her but in a good way - she had really missed him.

And it turned out, he had really missed her, too.

Other than that one hiccup in their relationship everything else had been perfectly fine. So much so that when - a week after he graduated medical school - he got down on one knee to pop the question she couldn't think of anything else to say than _Yes! Yes! Yes!_

There was no reason to rush things, they didn't feel the need to get married right away, since they were more than content with just being with one another. So when she told him she wanted a wedding in April, which was almost a year away, he said that was fine. They'd just have a long engagement.

One only impaired by late night's working.

**Ж**

It was something she had predicted, she knew once he started to residency he would be working outrageously long hours and they'd see less and less of each other. For almost a year it had been going like that, with her only feeling him there in the midst of the night when he finally got off to come home and sleep for a few hours before getting up and leaving again prior to her alarm clock even going off. It was annoying sometimes but she knew it wouldn't last.

She knew how important it was that he work that hard. He had gotten in on a project that focused on the disease Furei, just like he always wanted. In the nearly ten years since it took his sister from him some things had been discovered about the disease. It was hereditary, something that could be passed down from generation to generation. But just because one's parents had it didn't mean that one would end up with it. They couldn't figure out how to predict if one would inherit it or not yet.

There was also little known about treatments. Though there were a few labs around the world that had began to do experimental trails to see what would work best. From what she could tell he was rather excited about four, one taking place in Tokyo, another in Pittsburgh in the USA, another in Paris, and the last one in London. He was certain that eventually one would lead to at least a proper treatment for the disease, he hoped even a cure.

It sucked that it'd take years to discover whether any of the treatments worked, but that was just how science was sometimes - _slow_. Painstakingly slow in Inuyasha's opinion. He groaned bitterly as he rubbed his eyes and swiveled his chair away from microscope that he had been staring into for what felt like hours. Taking notes of the way the sample changed over time.

He was the last one left in the lab, he hoped that his efforts were being noted. In two more years he'd finish his residency and he wanted nothing more than to get in on the frontline of the Furei research that was taking place in that very hospital. As of now, he merely went over the drug compositions and things of that nature. He didn't do a damned thing that actually helped, at least that's how he felt.

When he finally pulled his hand away from his face the glimmer of gold on his left ring finger caught his attention, for a moment everything seemed to be fine. He tried to resist the urge but smiled all the same, in only a few more months he'd be married to the girl of his dreams. Higurashi Kagome. Really, he couldn't imagine life without her anymore.

Instantly, he stiffened up when a pair of petit hands covered his eyes. It took a second before the familiar scent of vanilla-lavender lotion invaded his scenes. Only one person he knew used that lotion religiously, his fiancée.

"Kagome?" he questioned before she pulled her hands away and walked into his sight, a smile on her lips as she leaned on the counter in front of him.

"Hey, stranger," she taunted while she reached her hand out for his, "I haven't seen you in forever."

"You're the one that went away on that stupid business trip," he countered bitterly. It wasn't as if it really mattered, they barely saw one another for more than ten to twelve hours a week. So her going to some conference in France really didn't make much of a difference.

That could have sparked an argument, he knew, she could point out how it was his work that kept them from seeing each other not hers but it didn't. She just rolled her eyes at his comment and let it go. It wasn't that they didn't have tiffs often, it was just that Kagome knew better than to start some while he didn't. That was another reason he loved her.

"I love you," she asserted.

"I know that," he assured her and to prove it he parted his arms for her to come and sit on his lap. "I missed you while you were away."

"I missed you, too."

He shut his eyes as he held her tight, feeling her small arms wrap around hers as well to hug him back. It was a simple moment, but one he'd treasure. How many people could say their loved one would come and visit them at work at midnight? Just to walk with them home?

Even someone as dense as him knew he was lucky.

"Are you alright?" he asked as he caught her from falling the moment she tried to stand up.

"Yeah," she cautiously replied before forcing a smile, "just dizzy all of a sudden. I'm still jetlagged, I just got back today, ya' know?"

"I wanted to come pick you up from the airport," Inuyasha muttered, "but I couldn't get away from work."

"I know…"

It was hard sometimes. Really hard, even, but she knew it was for good reasons that he worked late. She knew they'd have a great life once he got stead hours. But… just waiting more than two years to get there? It'd be a bother…

And, to make matters worse, "so… I hate that I have to do this but my boss asked if I'd attend this conference with him on Furei this weekend in Osaka… I won't go if you-"

"Go," she asserted with a smile, "you should go."

Though, she really didn't want him to, after all the weekends were usually when they got to see the most of each other but… it was best for his career right now if he went. She'd get to spend the rest of her life with him, she could bear some time apart from him a little longer.

Yet… she had no idea that she'd have to learn to bear _so long _without him.

**Ж**

Doctor's offices always bothered her. The way that they were so sterile and cold, the stupid little paper gowns she had to wear, the way she was barefoot and had to let her equally bare legs swing off the examining table while her hazels moved around at some of the gross posters on the wall explaining certain sicknesses or trying to let the time pass by looking at the old and tattered magazines in the room.

She didn't like going at all, but for a while now she hadn't felt well - even since before her trip to France. It was most likely purely out of stress that she felt so sickly. She had to do a lot of work all of a sudden, as if her boss wanted her to prove something to her, and then there was all the wedding planning she had to do. Soon she'd have to buy a dress, pick out a cake, and book the venue that her and Inuyasha had agreed upon.

And really, it was all her and her friend Sango that were doing all the planning. Inuyasha didn't have time and really didn't care - as long as they got married, he didn't care in what fashion. It annoyed her that he didn't put any effort towards helping, or even offering to, and it had sparked quite a few arguments.

She had been there for hours now, the doctor wanted to run _another _test. She had only planned to take off a couple hours that Thursday but it turned out she'd be gone for the rest of the day from work with the way things were going… finally her attention returned to the door as it slowly opened to reveal her doctor - wait, that wasn't the same person as before.

Her brow bent as she looked over the new man while he set a chart down on the counter and took off his rimless glasses to clean them.

"Hello, I'm Minamoto Suikotsu," he explained after he placed his glasses back on.

"What happened to the other doctor?"

"He asked me to come in… once your tests came back," he cautiously began before finally saying it, "I'm so sorry, Higurashi-san, but it turns out that you have Furei. You're medical files indicate that your father had it, am I right?"

She couldn't answer that. Her world stopped. Her breath hitched in her throat. Her heart stopped.

Nothing seemed to be working for a steady and painstakingly long second in time…

"You're wrong," was the only thing that Kagome could think to say. She had seen her dad, Inuyasha's mother, his sister, she knew what the signs were and she hadn't any of them - they were all more severe.

"With what we've learned about the disease in recent years we have developed tests that catch it sooner. I would say you are very lucky, we've caught it extremely early on, but that wouldn't be right. No one is lucky that ends up with this disease. I'm truly sorry. You see, it's policy to run this test on someone with family history of Furei after all other tests come back negative. I'm really very sorry, Higurashi-san."

"H… How long do I have?" she asked, swallowing back the urge to just burst out in tears right then and there.

"It's hard to say, my specialty lies in Furei," he explained, hence why he had been called in, "but I have never caught Furei this early."

"Guess," she requested, "just tell me what you think."

"Four or five years," it was harsh, but if she wanted to hear the truth he'd give it to her.

"How long until… until it gets bad?" Like her dad, like Inuyasha's mother and sister? And it did get bad, _real_ bad, so bad that it was hard to watch. She couldn't do that to Inuyasha. She couldn't make him marry her only to watch her die… to make him suffer like that again. He had lost too much to Furei, he had lost the women he loved most in his life already… she didn't want to - _couldn't_ - make him go through that again.

She loved him too much to make him suffer like that, she knew he'd stick by her side, that he wouldn't leave her.

"One to two years, three at most," he answered softly.

"So… what do we do?"

"There aren't many treatment options for Furei, as you might know," he said sympathetically, "but… there are a couple of experimental treatments underway around the world. One here in Tokyo, maybe I could get you in to that one?"

The one Inuyasha was a part of? No. Really, no. He would have to resign if someone he knew entered the treatment to avoid conflict of interest.

"There's one in France, right?" she questioned quickly, surprise coated his face at her knowledge. "Do you think I could get into that one?"

"Do you speak French…?" He waited for her to nod, "I don't know, you'd have to be a citizen of France. But like I said, I've never caught Furei this early before. I'm sure any of the experimental treatments would want you as a member. It's just, in less you have citizenship somewhere else, the one here in Tokyo would be your best bet."

"Can I think about it?" she requested as she stood up and reached for her clothes.

"Of course," he assured her with a nod before taking out a card and handing it to her. "If you need anything, at any time, please feel free to call me."

"Thank you, I will."

She waited impatiently for him to leave before throwing on her clothes and jetting out of the hospital and back to her work. How the hell was she supposed to process all of that? _What_ the hell was she supposed to do?

Make Inuyasha watch her wither away? Make him suffer like before? Make him cry like he did that night he snuck into her room?

No. No. No! She couldn't do that but what else was she to do? Her mind was in a frantic mess as she paced around her office, trying her hardest to find any rhyme or reason for what the hell was going on in her life. Then a knock came and she turned her attention to the door as her boss walked in.

The women had been the biggest pain in her ass for over a month, giving her assignment after assignment and all the crazy things to do. As if she didn't have enough to deal with. It had also been her that had forced Kagome to go to the conference in France, she wanted to try and spend some time with her fiancé but _nooo_.

The very last thing she needed was _her_.

"Kagome," she began while she set a file down on her desk, "as you might have noticed over the past month or so I have been rather… tough on you."

"I have," she stated simply.

"I was testing you, to be honest," she explained while her gaze shifted up to meet the younger girl's. "You did well, very well. I think it's time for you to move up, to become a manager of a resort yourself. You're too good to stay just an assistant. Of course that was required until you got some experience under your belt but now you have almost four solid years."

Oh… what a day. First she was told the worst news of her life - she has _Furei_ - and now she's being told she's a great worker and deserves a promotion? Gods. She didn't know how to handle any of that.

"There are three resorts that are looking for managers within our chain of hotels right now," she stated before frowning some, "none are here in Tokyo. I'm aware you're engaged and your fiancé works here, doesn't he? Would it be possible for him to move with you?"

Hell no. Inuyasha wouldn't leave Tokyo, not with the research he was doing. But that wasn't going to be a problem for her anymore… "where are the locations?"

"The tropical beaches in Okinawa, that's the only one in Japan, and then there is one in Paris and another in England. I know you speak both languages, so they' be opened to you if you'd want either positions. Would your fiancé be alright with leaving the country?"

"Paris?" she chimed instantly while she picked up the file that had the profiles on the resorts. "Would I get citizenship there?"

"Well… not right away, you'd get a work visa, you'd have to live there for a while before you get citizenship I think."

Damn… but, "when would I start?"

"As soon as you can, of course the company will help pay for the moving expenses, and help you look for a place to live while you are there."

"Great, great," Kagome said with a couple nods, "Paris it is then."

"Don't you have to talk to your fiancé…?"

"Let me worry about that," she requested with a phony smile and wave of her hand. It took some serious thank yous and ass kissing about all the great experience she had learned under her boss before the women would finally leave. Quickly she checked the clock and calculated the time difference in her head before picking up the phone and dialing an out of the country number.

She had no idea if he'd answer but… gods, she hoped he did.

"Bonjour?" She heard.

"Jacques?" she questioned cautiously, "c'est moi, Kagome…S'il vous plaît, aidez-moi."

**Ж**

It was so weird. So very strange… and it seemed so wrong. The moment he left for his conference she began to pack her things and get them shipped off to the address she'd be staying at for a while in Paris. That she booked a flight out that Monday. That she hadn't told a single soul about any of it.

That somehow, everything was aligning perfectly for her to do it. As if it were a cosmic sign, as if the world was telling her that it was the right thing to do - that she _had_ to leave him. She knew it wasn't right. That it was so cruel to do this to him. But what was the right thing to do in such a situation?

Make him suffer some right now, or forever in the long run? Make him hurt from her leaving, or constantly feel the agony of helplessness again as he watched her perish?

She had spent hours writing the note that explained why she left, why she had to call off the wedding, why she couldn't be with him anymore. Mostly it was filled with lies, and not once did she mention of her sickness. It all blamed him, his long hours, him not paying attention to her anymore, and his utter lack of interest in helping plan the wedding.

She loved him, but for that reason she'd break him now quickly instead of later slowly.

Why she'd leave the beautiful ring he had gotten her on the counter on top of the letter. Why she hadn't told anyone in her family about any of it. After all, her family was essentially his - they would all tell him right away. To keep him safely in the dark, she'd have to do the same to the rest of them.

It hurt, so badly, to take one final look of the apartment they shared before she shut the door and left.

Locking herself out of the life she had always wanted.

* * *

><p><strong><em>AN_**_: For anyone wondering, Furei is a completely made-up illness. I didn't want to have to use an actual one. Thank you everyone who has reviewed and who will continue to. I hope you enjoy the story. _


	3. Midnight Mistake

**Diagnosis: Terminal & Needing Him  
><em>Midnight Mistake<em>**

Without as much as a goodbye she left him, without a call, without talking to him face-to-face, she was gone and out of his life. All she left him was a goddamn letter that was meant to explain everything, that placed all the blame on him ignoring her, his long work hours, and the lack of passion that there used to be. The hardest thing he had ever read was that fucking lengthy letter that told him how she was going to move to Paris and become a manager at a resort there - though, she specifically didn't mention _which_. How at that _fucking_ conference she went to in France not even a whole week ago she had seen that _bastard_ Jacques and she realized that she couldn't marry Inuyasha.

Fucking Jacques Roux. The only other man that had ever had sex with her. The fucker that looked like a goddamn model in whatever pictures of the perfectly sculpted man that Inuyasha had seen. The one that she fawned over some even after her return from France.

The one he was _utterly_ jealous of… and she left him for Jacques?

She left him with a goddamn _note_!

All her things were gone so it wasn't a bad joke, she was serious. When he called her he got nothing but 'you've reached a number that has been disconnected…' when he talked to her cousin Miroku or brother Souta neither knew what was going on. They were as surprised to hear that Kagome had moved to France and left him as he was. Everyone was on his side, what she had done was just too cruel.

How could she leave her fiancé with just a letter? Without even talking to him? And all of a sudden? _Everyone_ had thought they were happy. _Everyone_ had thought she was living her dream. _Everyone_ had thought they'd get married and live happily ever after, probably with a couple of kids even.

Yet everyone was wrong…

There were two options for him to take after she abandoned him. One, he could become a depressed drunk and follow a downward spiral until he hit rock bottom - temping. Two, he could throw himself in work and become the best that he could be to prove her how wrong she was for leaving him - the winner. He worked out almost once a day, becoming as sculpted as he had seen Jacques be. He became the leading resident at his lab, the one that was eventually even offered a continuing job there while the rest were merely given recommendation for their applications elsewhere.

He became perfect just to spite her, so that when she came crawling back to him for forgiveness he could show her how wrong she was and tell her to _fuck off_. How could she…? Really, out of everyone in the world the last person he expected such behavior from was her. He had trusted her, completely, with everything. Especially his heart, _especially_ not to break it.

It took a year for him to realize she wasn't coming back or else she would have by then. It also took that long for her to tell her family that she had gotten married - _without _inviting them. Apparently, it had taken place just a _month_ after she left him. Hesitantly, Miroku told him that one day.

Instantly, that shattered him all over again.

Kagome had gotten married? To _Jacques_? A _month_ after she left him? That's all it took for her to forget him? It made him wonder night and day if he had missed something, if she had been having an affair the whole time.

That downward drunken spiral became _very_ tempting but he continued to try and be the best that he could be instead so he could be that only resident to stay working in the labs of Shikon Hospital on the Furei cure - the one thing that gave his life purpose anymore. The one thing he focused on almost completely.

That was until he finally did get his permanent status at Shikon Hospital and met Miyoko Midoriko, the daughter of one of the biggest donors to the Furei research at Shikon. There was something about her that caught his attention - probably the fact she was pretty, interested in him, and he hadn't gotten laid in a long while. One thing led to another and he ended up in bed with her.

It was the morning after that he realized that he couldn't just fuck the daughter of one of the biggest donors and not at least attempt to date her. That would probably mean _goodbye money_ after all. So he asked her out to dinner and she accepted. One dinner led to another, and another, and another… she was no Kagome and that's why he liked it so much.

It had been two years since she had left him. It only took another two for him to realize that it wasn't going to get much better. That Miyoko Midoriko was all he needed - _wanted_. So he went against his better judgment of not trusting another to get down on one knee and ask her one question, "will you marry me?"

When he got nothing but her shouting _yes! Yes! Yes_! He figured that his future was safe. That he could finally be happy again. That all would be well in the world of Taiko Inuyasha _finally_.

And it felt good.

**Ж**

Four years had slipped by since she had left him, it seemed like so much longer than that to her. Four years… was longer than she would have had if she hadn't left him to go to the experimental treatment in France. The one that had been working so well. She hadn't reached the stage of deterioration in the disease yet. It wasn't noticeable.

For that she was thankful. Everyone was getting what they wanted in one way or another she supposed. She wasn't dying - at least not at a very increased rate - and Inuyasha could still work on the Furei cure in Tokyo. If she had stayed, if she had joined that experimental trial she might have had equally good results but he would have had to resign. She would have had to weigh his heart down with worry… now he didn't give a damn about her.

She made sure of that. It wasn't out of spite that she married Jacques so soon, but out of necessity. It surprised her that he had suggested it when she called him that fateful day that she found out she had Furei. That once she explained the situation to him, how she'd be moving to France, that he thought the easiest way for her to get citizenship to enter the treatment was through marriage.

And it worked.

It was also just for show, though she loved Jacques it wasn't in the romantic way anymore. He loved her, too, but she didn't think it was in a very sexual way either. It wouldn't be much longer until she could keep her citizenship even after a divorce. But after a year past initially she finally told her family, because that was the only way she knew Inuyasha would find out.

In the very off chance that he still had some sort of feelings for her she knew they'd be crushed at hearing how she'd married another. Not just anyone but Jacques and not just at anytime but a _month_ after she left him. It was harsh, really harsh, and she hated herself some for doing it but she needed him to rejoice at hearing that she had died - when that finally happened - not cry.

Breaking him now saved him in the long run, didn't it…?

She sighed at the thought as she downed another drink at the hotel bar she had been sitting at for a long while, the ever so crowded one at that. Apparently there was some sort of medical conference taking place there and all the attendants went to get a drink there after it was finished. It was just over thoughts of Inuyasha that made her drink herself close to a stupor that night - something she had avoided doing for a long time - but dealing with her family on that visit.

She loved her family, she wished she could see more of them since she knew her time on earth was going to be shorter than most, but she also hated seeing them some. Inuyasha had been like family, he had been one of her brother's and cousin's best friends, and her mother adored him. He hadn't cut off contacted with any of them because of what she did and they didn't stop seeing him, either.

He was still like family to them. And because of that they all were a bit cross with her for what she had done, something none of them understood. Her mother still loved her and all, so did her grandpa, but her brother and cousins held resentment that they'd flash out every once and a while. Mostly Miroku, she rarely saw him anymore, almost never talked to him…

She didn't even get an invite to his wedding with her friend, Sango.

What goes around comes around, she had once been told. She hadn't invited him to her "wedding" with Jacques - really, them going to the court house to get in legalized - so why should he invite her? Besides, his best man was Inuyasha. Why make his best friend uncomfortable for her sake?

She didn't even know that they were married until she had visited, apparently it had been an entire year. Then her little brother had just gotten engaged and she got the feeling she wasn't going to be too welcomed at that wedding, either. After all… his best man was probably going to be Inuyasha, too.

Really, sometimes she didn't even know if she had done the right thing.

Most of the time she spent it missing him.

Praying she'd see him again.

Hoping to feel his lips once more.

Wishing to know he loved her still.

But then it all crashed down on her. Inuyasha would have been suffering all that time with fear of when he'd lose her, how it'd be, and what all was to come. His future was bright. He had achieved all he had wanted to, Souta and Miroku made it a point to tell her that. They made an _extra_ effort to enlighten her that he was engaged to a social highlight Midoriko from the well known Miyoko family. That he was going to live happily ever after with her.

And it just made her drink all the more.

But in an odd way she was glad. At least one of them would get a happily ever after. If he was even half as happy as Souta and Miroku led her to believe then she had done the right thing. She had led him to a life that he'd enjoy until _his_ death, not _hers_. He'd get a wife that he could live his life with, instead of watch die.

She had done the right thing. She just had to keep telling herself that. But… she was only human. She made mistakes. One in particular, one she'd deem selfish and would learn to regret.

**Ж**

Wasted. Inuyasha was one drink away from being absolutely, ridiculously, drunk. It wasn't his fault - well, sort of - it was his colleagues that thought playing a drinking game at the bar of the hotel that they had spent the day in for a conference was a good idea. He had plenty of things to drink about, some celebrations, some annoyance, and others he'd rather not think about. Plus, he was really good at drinking games.

As his colleagues were finding out as he beat each one by one. Of course, that meant he was drinking twice as much as the rest of them. His judgment was iffy at best to start out with, so when he had that much to drink it was highly impaired. Certainly, he would make a horrific mistake if one was presented in front of him.

And one soon would arise.

"Inuyasha," his friend Misako chuckled deeply while he slammed his empty sake shot down, "I can't drink anymore. I've gotta get back to the wife."

"Coward," he asserted back.

"I'm out, too," the only other one left said with slurs before he stood up wobbly. "The wifey ain't going to enjoy this drunkenness."

"Keh," he grumbled with a wave of his hand then bid his friends goodbye. Lightweights, the whole lot of them, he could probably drink another beer or two without getting to the passed-out-drunk stage. Then again, he lifted his wrist up to look at his watch, it was almost midnight… he probably should find a cab and get home. That hardly seemed like fun, though.

But it was the smart thing to do, and what the bar tender suggested, so he got to his feet and started towards the door only to catch a glimpse of a familiar figure at the bar as she got up to leave. One that he hadn't seen in four years. One that he hadn't thought of in so long… One that still pissed him off.

He didn't know what he would have done if he were sober, but being drunk storming up to her and blocking her path to the elevator seemed like a brilliant idea. Instantly her eyes widened and lips parted in shock, a silent stupor swallowed her. For a while they both said nothing.

"You're a fucking bitch," Inuyasha finally asserted, forcing her to look away. "Leaving me like you did, fucking hell, _Kagome_."

Oh, gods, what was Inuyasha doing at that hotel? Had Miroku or Souta told him where she was staying, that she was in town? Did he just need to come and yell at her? She couldn't take it.

"Sorry," was all she said as she stepped around him to hit the up button. "That was forever ago, get over it."

"Get over it? Damn it, bitch!" he shouted back as he stepped in front of her again - her eyes, though, where locked above the elevator doors as she waited from them to fall down to where she was. "That ain't fair! How could you leave me with just a note?"

"It was easiest…"

"I deserved more than that!"

"I guess…"

"Look at me," he ordered while he grabbed her arm, and reluctantly she did. But what he saw in them was nothing but sorrow and a tinge of tears. For a moment that made him falter… enough for when the doors open she could pull away to step in. But so did he. Locking them in there alone while it started up to her floor.

"Inuyasha, go away," she requested with a wave of her hand.

"Fuck no."

"You still curse like a sailor," she complained.

"I thought we were happy," he insisted but hardly as forceful as before - he almost sounded broken. "I thought we were really happy… then you just left. I don't get it."

She just pressed her lips together and looked away.

"I loved you and you just left me like that…"

Finally she forced herself to look at his somberly sad expression. She hated that she caused that… she hated being the source of his sorrows. If she had one less drink that night she might not have thought leaning in to kiss him was such a good idea. If he had drank half as much he would have thought it was a horrific thing for her to do.

Instead they both liked it as the doors chimed open and they stumbled out together, lips meshing, while they fumbled down the hallway and into her room. It had been a long time since they had felt the other against them. Four years ago it was a regular habit. Four years ago it was always great. Four years ago things were simpler for both of them…

So for that night, they pretended like it _was_ four years ago.

That it was normal for her to remove her clothes for him, that it was still customary that he follow suit. That their lips still recognized the others, that their tongues still knew each craves of the other's mouth, and that their hands were familiarized with the others entire body. That when they got onto the bed and she spread her legs for him there was nothing wrong with it - that it was only natural he thrust in.

Four years ago she wasn't married to another.

Four years ago he wasn't engaged to someone else.

Four years ago when their bodies bagged against the other it felt blissful for no other reason than that they _belonged _to the other.

But Kagome no longer belonged to it… and Inuyasha no longer belonged to her.

That didn't stop him from thrusting in and out, from letting his hands squeeze her ass to keep her against him, or her from moaning out his name as he hit all the right spots. It felt good, but far from right. It was wrong… but neither recognized it at the moment. Her hips still knew how to move along with his rhythm, still remembered when to jerk to him.

Neither knew at the time what a mistake that night was. All they knew was that when both came, it felt so good, that she loved the feeling of him filling her - that he loved being on top of her.

Or how after the initial feelings of grace wore off that they'd both just pass out in bed next to each other - just like they would have four years ago…

But it wasn't four years ago… and it could never be that way again.

**Ж**

Awaking next to someone was very strange for Higurashi Kagome, particularly with such a killer hangover. Her and Jacques rarely shared the same bed, though it had happened once or twice over the years. The morning after they always decided it probably was best not to do that again… and then there were the nights were she couldn't stop herself from crying, the nights he lied with her in her bed to comfort her.

But she was in a hotel in Tokyo… slowly the night before came back to her in bits and pieces and when she saw the man lying nude beside her was Inuyasha she gasped in fear while she fumbled out of the bed and grabbed her clothes to slid them back on. That day she was going to be leaving back to France anyway. Thankfully she had her things all packed and ready to go.

What a mistake… oh, gods, how could she do such a thing? He was _engaged_! Did she just ruin his chance at a happy future?

Did he still have feelings for her if he was willing to have sex with her?

She hoped not… she tried to be a silent as possible as she grabbed her luggage and exited the room. The very last thing she needed was him waking up and them having another talk - rather, argument. She didn't want to deal with that - _couldn't_.

That was so… so wrong. But she couldn't remember who started it - was it her? Or was it him? Damn. She'd never drink again. That's what she swore to herself as she rode the elevator down silently trying her utmost to regain herself. How could they have just done that..?

Were they safe? She didn't remember. But if they were both drunk she hardly thought that one would think that a condom was called for. Oh well… she probably didn't need to worry herself too much over that. Four years ago Inuyasha was clean, he probably stayed that way. The last thing he wanted was an STD. The last thing she needed was one.

Briefly, the concern of what that night could lead to flashed through her mind. But then she reminded herself of the side-effect of her Furei treatment. At least one that had shown up in a couple of the other women in the program - the inability to have children. So, really, she probably didn't need to worry about that.

No. Really, she had no need to. At least that's what she kept telling herself as the taxi driver put her luggage in that back and opened the door for her to get in.

She'd be back in France in a while and she could just pretend like that never happened.

That she hadn't had sex with Inuyasha.

That she hadn't seen him.

That'd be easy… right? It wasn't as if she had anything but foggy memories to remind her of what they had done. With time that'd be proven to be wrong. In the not too distant future she'd find out she had something else to remind her of her one-night stand with her ex-fiancé.

But for those couple of weeks, she could live in blissful ignorance.

* * *

><p><em><strong>AN**: Thank you for all the reviews. I really appreciate all of them and all that will continue to come._

_I have a small favor to ask, go to my profile and take the poll. I'm considering discontinuing A Rose By Anything Other Name and right now the 'yes discontinue it' are winning. _

_Hope you continue to review, read, and enjoy Diagnosed: Terminal & Needing Him  
><em>


	4. Moving Home

****†:** Diagnosis: Terminal & Needing Him**** :†****  
><em>x Moving Home x<em>**

**_****-•°•°•-****_**

Everything had gone to hell within five weeks after the "incident" with Inuyasha. It was a mistake she thought she could forget. One that she thought Inuyasha was just going to pretend never happened, either. She was certain of it after she talked to Souta about a week after she returned to France and he didn't mention anything. If Inuyasha was going to make a scene out of the situation he would have told Souta.

Since he didn't, she figured he was as horrified by their actions as she was - or better! Maybe he was so drunk he didn't remember anything. Maybe he just woke up naked in the empty bed that he didn't know who he had shared it with. _If_ he had shared it with anyone to start out with.

It'd be beautiful if that were the truth…

It was customary for her to be tested for pregnancy if she missed her period and there was a possibility she _might_ be pregnant. Regrettably, there was that possibility. It wasn't uncommon for her to miss her period, it was a side effect from the treatment that it happened every once and a while.

But when the test came back… _positive_ her world imploded upon itself.

She was pregnant. That complicated everything. That was a _huge_ problem.

"Madame Roux," as the doctors in the program called her, the one who came back to break the news to her was from the United States and not so great at French. The fact that she also spoke English made her one of his favorite patients. "Well… we have three options here. One, you continue the treatment and give up your child. That is the one, I'm afraid, I have to recommend. You are doing very well and if you give up now… we don't know how that would affect you or your baby."

She nodded at that, before asking, "the other two?"

"You keep the child and remain on the treatment, we don't know how what it would do to the pregnancy. We would assume it wouldn't be something good. You would most likely have a miscarriage if not, we would assume that it would cause some sort of birth defect."

At that, she sighed heavily, folding her hands in her lap, "and the last?"

"You keep the child and pull out of the program, but like I said, we're unsure what would occur if you did that. We haven't had anyone pull out of the program yet. I understand you'll need time to think this over and discuss it with your husband, of course."

Jacques already knew about her mishap in Tokyo with her ex-fiancé, he had been the one she cried to when she got back. So when she told him she was pregnant because of that mistake he tried to be as supportive as he could, and neutral-minded, but he was fairly stanch about which he thought was the best option. Abort and stay in the treatment.

Why have a child with a man that she was on _awful_ terms with? Why risk her life for a baby? Why even attempt that when she might just die? Not even get to have a chance to help raise the child?

What, would she merely go back to Inuyasha and say 'hey, I'm pregnant and will probably be dead soon so you'll have to raise the child you may or may not want on your own'? Jacques had very good points… and she did consider that option for a long while but she couldn't.

Instead, she got took a job offer in Tokyo and decided to move home to have the child there. All the doctors warned her they didn't know how long she'd have if she pulled out of the program and with the strain of pregnancy. She'd have a couple of years at most, probably.

But how could she really give up her child? She had _always_ wanted children and thought that it would never be an option. And whenever she dreamed of having a kid she always thought about it with Inuyasha… she supposed that was coming true. Just not actually with him.

He was engaged, he'd be married in a month or so, at least that's what Souta told her. She couldn't ruin that by telling him she was pregnant with his child. Surely that would end the engagement… and she wanted him to be happy with his fiancé forever.

That left a large problem… what would happen to the child once she was gone or too sick to take care of him or her? It was just something she'd have to deal with later. Moving home was hard for her, not only would she miss Jacques, but her family was still fairly displeased with her. Adjusting to a new job while pregnant would be difficult as well.

Then the whole filing for divorce thing while being overseas would be a pain in the ass, but their marriage was no longer needed and she knew Jacques had a new special someone in mind.

Still, she moved back by week ten in her pregnancy. It wasn't noticeable, she just had a small bump… really she hadn't figured out how to deal with the situation yet.

Such a problem was never in her plan.

**Ж**

How long she had left was up in the air, but she doubted it'd be more than a couple of years, so she was glad to be closer to her family again. There was no way she'd get back to the way things used to be between her and Miroku but she could recover her relationship with Souta. Her mother was beyond joyful that she had returned home as was her grandpa.

They were both saddened by the news she was going through a divorce, but since they really only met him a couple of times they didn't feel too bad about it. She supposed that was the excuse she was going to go with when she finally told them she was pregnant. It was Jacques… not Inuyasha's.

"Hey, sis," Souta greeted after he took off his jacket to sit down across from her at the restaurant inside of the hotel she now managed. It took more effort than she would have liked to get him to agree to lunch with her. "I'm on my lunch break and this isn't that close to my work so I really won't be able to stay long."

"I'm sorry about all the things that happened between Inuyasha and me," she stated swiftly which instantly earned his attention. "But I'm your sister, shouldn't you just let it go?"

Couldn't he just be her little brother again?

"I…" Souta slowly started before frowning and looking away. "I don't get why you did that. You had wanted to be with him since we were kids and then you were about to marry him and you bailed to get married to some French guy? That was harsh, Kagome."

"I had my reasons," she murmured.

"And what could those be?" he asked with a bent brow and narrowed eyes. "How could you have thought leaving with just a _letter_ was a good idea, Kagome? You can't possibly justify that."

"I'm dying," she whispered. For four years she hadn't told any of her family the truth and really she hadn't any intention to tell them yet but… it felt so good to finally say. To finally have at least one of them know and she wanted it to be Souta. He was her baby brother, they were always close, and she wanted him back on her side.

Inuyasha could keep Miroku, but Kagome had to have Souta.

For a long while he just sat there staring at her in silence before finally muttering, "what are you talking about?"

"I have Furei," she explained cautiously, watching as his eyes widened in horror at that. "I found out a short while before I left Inuyasha. I didn't want him to have to suffer through losing someone else to this and so… I left him. I know it seems cruel or harsh or something but look now - he's happy, isn't it? With his new fiancé? He can have a happily ever after with her, but he could never have had that with me. I had to leave him. I couldn't make him suffer."

She expected him to remain mute for a while before he could process all that she had just said. Finally he sat back in his seat and let his gaze fall, "wow… how the hell could you keep this from me for all this time? Huh? I'm your _brother_, you should have told me sooner. And mom? Does she know?"

She simply shook her head at that.

"Kagome… Inuyasha would have stuck with you."

"I know, but I didn't want him to," she stated with a shrug of his shoulder.

"So… why'd you go and marry that Jacques guy?"

"There was an experimental treatment in France, I needed citizenship, so we got married. It's been working really well."

"Are you cured?" he asked hopefully as he sat up straight once more.

She shook her head lightly, "no… but I had to pull out of the program."

"Why?"

She took a deep breath in as she reached out to her water glass, "I'm pregnant. I couldn't stay in the program without giving up the child."

Well, she couldn't just throw one bombshell on him that day so he let that news sink in some. "Congratulations…?"

"Thank you," she supposed was the right answer.

"Jacques' the dad?"

"Yep," no, but if she said it was Inuyasha she was certain that he would tell her ex-fiancé that.

"But you two are getting a divorce…?"

"Yep," she nodded once again.

"So does he want to have something to do with the child or not?"

"Not," it was the story she planned to go with.

"Kagome… how is this all going to work for you? Having a child _and_ Furei? Without him playing any part in it?"

It was a good question. In all reality she hadn't an answer for that yet… so she just forced a smile and shrugged a shoulder. She was only twenty-eight, in only a couple of months she'd be twenty-nine. That was an age that no one thought she'd see… so she supposed she was just grateful for whatever time she had left. If she could just have a couple more years, just enough to make sure her child was fine and that it'd be taken care of once she was gone then she'd be happy.

Well, not happy… but satisfied. She wasn't asking for forever, she just needed a couple of years.

**Ж**

Higurashi Souta wasn't really in the mood for a party after learning the truth of his sister's disappearing act. He especially wasn't feeling up to a bachelor's party, particularly not when it was his ex-future-brother-in-law Taiko Inuyasha. In a short while he'd be married to Miyoko Midoriko.

After all that Kagome told him he wasn't so sure how he felt about it. Certainly if she was willing to go through _all_ of that just to avoid putting Inuyasha through the pain of losing another women he loved to Furei… well, Inuyasha could never find another that loved him like that. But Kagome didn't want to be with him and had _begged_ Souta never to tell Inuyasha why she did what she did.

How could he do anything but promise his sister that he would never if that were the case? She was his big sister and she suddenly needed him. He had to be there for her - whatever grievance he held for what she had done died that day. With her having a baby and Furei he knew she'd need him a lot.

But he couldn't believe it… his big sister was going to die from the same disease that had taken his dad from him. It wasn't fair. He couldn't take that.

So when he was given one drink at the party he decided he'd need a couple more before the evening was over. Slowly the warmth of the alcohol made the cold sorrow that swept within him die down. For a moment or two he could enjoy himself at the party but… by the end of it he found himself behind the bar in the huge hotel room that they had been rented for the after-party - after they had ended their club hopping.

And to top it off, he was drinking some brandy all by himself as he stared out into the city lights of Tokyo.

"What are you doing?" he heard above him, so he glanced up to see Inuyasha leaning over the bar to look down on him.

"Drinking," he answered as he lifted the half empty bottle up.

To that, his friend just grinned with a shake of his head as he walked around to kneel down next to his obviously drunk comrade. He had noticed Souta downing a lot of drinks throughout the night and he was far from his overly joyous self. Obviously something was wrong with the twenty-six year old boy, was he suddenly scared of the notion that he'd be married soon, too? Inuyasha figured it had to do with Sachiko in one way or another… but he was wrong. Very wrong.

"I love my sis," he said with slurred words and a sigh, "lots. She's always been a good sissy and always there when I want her to be… mostly. She's a good sis."

"Alright," Inuyasha muttered back. Souta's lamenting attitude that night had to do with _Kagome_? The very last thing he wanted to do was deal with that. Souta had been a good friend of his, since as far back as he could remember, so when Kagome left him he didn't really think that cutting off contact with one of his best friends was what needed to be done. Both Souta and Miroku had been respectful of the situation and had stopped talking about her around him.

So why would he decide on the night of his bachelor's party he would start to declare his love for his sister?

"I don't know what to do," Souta whined while he shut his eyes and let his head fall rather harshly against the bar behind him, groaning both from the ache that caused and utter unsure of what he should do to help Kagome. "I… feel like I should get her to move in with Sachiko and me. It's wrong to let her live alone right now… right?"

"What are you talking about?" Inuyasha inquired with a cocked brow, "Kagome lives in France with her _husband_, remember?"

"No, no, no!" Souta insisted with a wave of his hand, which almost made him fall over completely. If Inuyasha hadn't grabbed his shoulder he probably would have. "They're divorcing each other. That fucker. If I ever see him I'll kill 'em."

"Why's that?" Inuyasha asked, though he really didn't care too much. He just wanted Souta to get over this phase so he could return to enjoying the party. Or at least start.

"That jackass, asshole, damn dickhead left my sister pregnant and without anything. Now she's moved home. What the fuck am I supposed to do? She's my sister and now she's all alone and stuff… and it's worse and…" but he realized, even intoxicated, that he shouldn't speak further or else he'd surely let something slip that he shouldn't.

Then again, telling Inuyasha she was pregnant probably wasn't right either.

"I'm gonna go over there," Souta stated as he pointed behind himself. Gradually he got to his feet and did just that to enter a conversation with a couple of the other guys.

For a while Inuyasha stayed there until he shook his head to stand up. He hadn't been heavily drinking that night, a while back he had drank himself to the point of blacking out at a hotel that housed a conference he had been attending. The hangover from that experience alone was enough to keep him well within his limits.

"You enjoying yourself?" Miroku inquired with a grin as he watched his friend rest against the glass walls of the hotel room.

"Yeah," up until his little conversation with Souta. "Did you know Kagome moved back to Tokyo?"

Miroku shook his head after first, "when did that happen?"

"Not sure, but Souta just told me."

"Do you really want to talk about her on the night of your bachelor party?"

He wasn't so sure, but he continued anyway, "her and Jacques are getting divorced. Apparently he left her pregnant and with nothing. I know it's vindictive but… I feel pretty great hearing that."

All of that was news to Miroku - news he had no idea how to feel about himself. Kagome was his cousin, they were as close as siblings growing up, but what she had done to Inuyasha was utterly wrong and they hadn't really spoken much since then. But… he wasn't happy to hear that her life was apparently falling to pieces.

"You don't really feel great about that, do you?" Miroku guessed, "not jumping for joy happy, at least."

"No… not really happy," he didn't think that was the right word. Kagome left him for Jacques, left him broken, and now Jacques apparently did the exact same thing to her. It was nice hearing. Amusing for him. The better way of addressing it was. "It's oddly satisfying. What goes around comes around, ya' know?"

"Yeah," Miroku mumbled back before Inuyasha's attention was taken away by something that his other friends' were up to. Most of which were lost in a drunken stupor that amused Inuyasha deeply. He waited to make sure that whatever the others were doing would in fact keep Inuyasha occupied for a while longer before he went up o his cousin and pulled Souta aside. "Inuyasha just told me Kagome moved back to Tokyo?"

"Yeah," his intoxicated cousin replied with a lazy nod. "Did I tell him that?"

"Yes, you did. Her and Jacques are getting a divorce and she's… pregnant?"

To that Souta only frowned while he nodded. That was the unfortunate truth. Apparently the marriage hadn't been out of love, more out of necessity, but still… to leave a very sick Kagome alone to have a baby? What kind of asshole did that? If he ever got a hold of that bastard he'd kill him.

"That's… unfortunate for her."

"I'm gonna kill Jacques if I ever meet him again," Souta warned him.

"Let's not do that," Miroku requested with a smile, "you don't want to end up in jail before you get married to Sachiko, now do you?"

"No…" he muttered soberly, "but he can't just leave Kagome like that…"

"Why are they getting divorced?"

"I donna know," he answered with another shrug. He hadn't thought about asking that to her earlier that day. Kagome had told him so much that he had plenty to process and hadn't thought of such a clever question as that. Maybe it was a temporary situation… maybe they'd work things out before it was too late? "I'm worried about her…"

"Kagome has always been able to handle herself. You needn't worry about it, Souta," Miroku assured while he patted his cousin on his shoulder. "How about I get you home tonight?"

* * *

><p><strong><em>AN_**_:Thank you for the reviews. I got another chapter done sooner than I thought so I decided to update early. There will be five or six more chapters to the story, so either nine or ten chapters in total. _

_Anyway, thank you for reviewing and please continue to review. I appreciate all of them, large or small.  
><em>


	5. Crossed Paths

******†:**** Diagnosis: Terminal & Needing Him****** :†******  
><em><strong><em>x<em>** Crossed Paths **_x_**_**

**_**_****-•°•°•-****_**_**

It was of vital importance that she find a Furei expert and start going to the doctor as soon as possible. She had a couple of referrals from the program in France, and it just so happened that the best in Japan lived in Tokyo. A Minamoto Suikotsu, the man that had first told her she had Furei.

She doubted he'd remember her, he probably had a thousand patients since her, but his face was forever embedded in her mind for telling her that awful news. It wasn't his fault, she didn't hold it against him, obviously he couldn't help that she just had the genes that led to such a horrific disease.

Having the patience to wait for the doctor to finally come in was always hard for her to find. She didn't have much time left in the world so why would they think she wanted to waste it _waiting_ for them to show up? Usually it'd take twenty to thirty minutes, even sometimes up to an hour, but this time it was different. After the nurse asked the initial questions and left Minamoto Suikotsu was in within only a couple of minutes.

With a warm smile he greeted her, "hello, Higurashi-san. I was just reviewing your file here. You were recently released from the experimental treatment in Paris, France? It was going well?"

"Yep," she chimed with a nod of her head.

"May I ask why you left? I haven't ever come across a patient in such great condition after four years. I even made a couple of calls once your file was sent over and they thought you were doing the best out of all of them. They didn't tell me why you left."

"I'm pregnant," she explained, which earned a nod from Suikotsu. "I essentially had to give up the child or leave the treatment… the latter was easiest for me."

"Oh, I see," he murmured with a nod as he took a seat. "That will make treating Furei more complicated. As you can imagine, most of the drugs that are in circulation now are harmful to pregnancies."

"I don't want to do anything that could harm my baby," she asserted simply as she placed her hand on her ever so small bump.

"I can't give you an accurate prediction of what will happen, this is a unique case." He warned while he set her file down. "The treatment gave you more time but now that you are off it I am unsure what will happen and pregnancy is rough on a women's body. Particularly one with Furei…"

"Could you guess?" Like she had made him do so long ago for her?

"I could guess," he acknowledged with a nod, "if you reframe from holding me to it. Like I said, I'm not really sure what might happen."

"I won't, I'd just like to have some sort of figure in my head."

"A figure, huh?" he questioned with a couple tilts of his head before he finally said, "I would say you'd make it through the pregnancy. Let's assume it's a rough one, as it usually is with those with Furei, at the least I'd assume you'd have a year after that… at most, maybe two or three?"

She swallowed back the scare in that and just nodded, "alright…"

"May I ask you something personal?" He waited for her to nod, "all your files from France say _Roux_ Kagome, when you set up this appointment it was under _Higurashi_ Kagome? I assume you are going through a divorce, so… will the child have a home once…?"

"Yes, don't worry about that," she assured him with a forced smile. "It's just complicated."

"Oh, how so…?"

**Ж**

Minamoto Suikotsu worked at Shikon Hospital or else Kagome wouldn't go there - a place she knew she had a possibility of running into Inuyasha at. Tokyo was a big city, she probably wouldn't run into him ever again. At least she hoped not…

Of course had never really got what she wanted because as soon as she walked out of the office area and into the hallway she saw a familiar someone looking over a file as he walked down it. She quickly turned in hopes that he hadn't seen her and tried to make her way to the staircase soon enough but… apparently, he saw her. And _apparently_ he felt the need to say something.

"Kagome?"

She cringed at the sound of her name from his lips but that meant it was obvious that she heard him so she forced a smile and turned around. "Hello, Inuyasha. I see you're still working here…"

"Yeah," he answered while his eyes wandered down her body - if she was really pregnant she wasn't visibly yet which meant she was either in the first trimester or early stage of the second. Granted, he didn't like her one bit anymore and felt far from sorry for her but… how could a husband leave his pregnant wife like that? Then again, he didn't know the whole story. For all he knew Kagome was the one that left him or was the source of the divorce. When he stopped to think about it that was probably it. After all, she couldn't even handle being engaged to him. How could she manage a functional marriage without fucking that up, too?

He had to state the obvious, "I heard you moved back to Tokyo."

"Yep, I did…" she murmured with a nod of her head while she looked away, counting how many steps it would take for her to get to the stairwell and away from him. "I hear a congratulation is in order for you."

"Uh-huh, I'm getting married," he confirmed, quickly turning his attention to see her reaction to that news. She seemed completely and utterly unfazed… then again, it had been her that had left him. She probably didn't give a damn about anything in his life anymore - did she even notice how fit he was now? Not that he wasn't in good shape with they were together, he was ten times better now than then. "I hear you deserve a congratulation yourself."

"Oh?" she questioned with a lifted brow. Who had told him what…? He didn't say anything, merely pointed to her stomach. For a second it confused her then it dawned on her what he meant. "Oh!" That was something she _didn't_ want him to hear about yet… but all the same she put one hand over her belly and said, "Yes, thank you."

He figured that was why she was there, they had a pretty good obstetrician practice attached to the hospital a level up. If his wife ever got pregnant, not that he was planning for that to happen yet, he'd recommend she go there. He did want children, just not yet. He'd rather be married a couple of years before they started a family. It wasn't like that was going to be a problem, his fiancé was five years younger than him so they had plenty of time.

"Well, I've got to go, it was nice seeing you," she stated with a wave of her hand before she turned around again and started towards the stairs. That was… weird, to say the least. The way he acted made her think that he no longer hated her with a burning passion and… and that he might not remember about their midnight mistake that led to her pregnancy? If so that was probably for the best.

Did he like Kagome anymore? No. He really _disliked_ her but hating her took too much effort. Souta apparently still loved his sister - Inuyasha could hardly blame him, they were blood after all - and he was one of Inuyasha's best friends so at least pretending to be nice to her on occasion would make Souta happy. He could manage that for his sake, he had never been anything but a good friend to him.

Luckily, he didn't have to think of any of that stuff once he started on his way once more and saw one of his colleagues. "Suikotsu, hey."

"Inuyasha," he greeted with a weak attempt at a smile while he sat down in one of the seats in the hallway. His general expression said he was worn out, his eyes fixated upon the floor.

"What's wrong?" he asked while he took a seat next to him. The two had been working close for years now, both specialized in the same area so most of the time their work overlapped. Suikotsu had it far worse than him, since he actually had to deal with the patients and form attachments with them. Inuyasha just dealt with the data he gathered and the medical research half of it. He couldn't do what Suikotsu did… it was easier to just look at the people as numbers in his research instead of actual living humans.

"Sometimes some patients just get to me more, I guess," he muttered back while he removed his glasses and ran his hand down his face. "My job is so… depressing. My patients always die no matter what I do."

"I understand, I don't know how you do it, Suikotsu. I could never deal with people face-to-face like you do."

"I have this new patient," he began while he sat up straight and put his glasses back on. "She was in a very effective treatment that was doing wonders for her until she got pregnant. I understand why she'd leave, no one knows the effect the treatment would have on her child, so it would make sense that her motherly instincts would tell her she needed to quiet it but… if she has the baby she'll probably be dead shortly after it turns one."

"Furei… it takes too much from people." Inuyasha knew that first hand, he had already had two of his family members snatched away because of it.

He knew it wasn't fair that that poor girl's life was going to be cut short merely because she couldn't give up her child. Furei wouldn't just take away years of her life but another child's mother… he knew how horrible of a fate that was. It wasn't fair… but nothing about Furei ever was. Someday soon he hoped there was a cure, he didn't even care if it was his lab and his research that brought it around.

As long as there was a cure in the world he'd be happy. That would mean no more children had to go without a parent. No mother would have decide between her life or the life of her unborn child.

"Yeah," Suikotsu took a breath in then before he stood up and nodded. "I'll see you later."

**Ж**

Since her confession of the truth - well, most of the truth at least - Souta had been calling her constantly, always wanting to do this or that with her. It warmed her heart… she had her little brother back. They saw each other almost every day - she wouldn't have it any other way.

She also got to know his fiancé, Sachiko, better, too. They weren't planning out their wedding yet, she wanted to wait a year before getting married, and Souta was fine with that. It was perfectly acceptable until he found out his sister suffered from Furei - suddenly he wanted to get married sooner.

He didn't say it out loud but she knew why, he feared if they waited too long then she wouldn't be there for the wedding… and, really, she didn't know whether she would or not. As the days progressed by without the treatment she was used to she started actually feel ill, more than just morning sickness. All she wanted - _really_ wanted - was to have a healthy pregnancy, for nothing to happen to her baby.

But she rarely got what she wanted…

"Souta?" stopped them both in the fresh harvest market that they strolled around that Saturday. Neither had to turn to see who it was, both recognized the voice. He looked to his sister first, to verify it was alright with her for him to stop to chitchat, when he got a nod he looked over to see his friend there.

"Hey, Inuyasha," he replied with a forced smile while his gaze shifted to the pretty onyx haired woman beside him - his fiancé, the woman that would be his wife in merely a couple weeks. Briefly, his hazels shifted over to his sister who just clutched onto her purse a little tighter.

"Oh… hi, Kagome," Inuyasha greeted, he hadn't noticed her there with Souta. If he had, he probably wouldn't have called out to him. What were the chances that he ran into her a second time in one week? Tokyo was a huge city, why did he keep crossing paths with her of all people?

"Hello," she responded with a nod of her head.

"I don't think we've ever met," the girl beside Inuyasha insisted with a sweet smile, "I'm Miyoko Midoriko. Soon to be Taiko Midoriko," she added giddily with a smile towards her fiancé who just gave one back to her.

"I'm Higurashi Kagome," she greeted with another nod of her head, "it's nice to meet you."

"Oh, you are Souta's sister?" Midoriko guessed, "that's nice. I think I remember someone saying you lived somewhere in Europe?"

"I lived in France for four years," she confirmed while her hazels took in the sight in front of her quickly. She was truly lovely, elegant even in her simple common clothes, it was easy to tell she came from money and a socially important family like the Miyoko's were in Tokyo. Inuyasha had done well for himself, he'd be set for life if he married into that family… that was good. Very good for him. "I recently moved home."

"Oh, that's great," Midoriko chimed while she wrapped her arms around one of Inuyasha's. "Tonight my family is throwing a little party out my father's penthouse to celebrate that the wedding is right around the corner. You two should come! I'm sure Inuyasha would feel more comfortable if some of his childhood friends were there, right, sweetheart?"

No. He would hardly feel better if Kagome was there… but Souta was right next to her and he had never mentioned his former failed attempt at marriage with Kagome to Midoriko - if she found out now she'd think there was a reason he hid it from her for so long. So instead of saying he'd rather her not be there he said, "yeah, that'd be great. You should bring Sachiko, too, Souta."

"Sure, sure," he stated with a couple of nods, "sounds like fun. Well, we've got to get going."

"We'll see you tonight," Midoriko kept up before waving goodbye, "it was a pleasure to meet you."

"You, too," Kagome assured her back before Souta and her turned to walk away. The last thing she wanted to do was attend a party that was celebrating her ex-fiancé being engaged to another but… if she didn't show up would Midoriko wonder if something was wrong? Or would Inuyasha think she was still hung up on her?

Gods, why did life have to always be so complicated for her?

"She seems nice," Midoriko commented while they began their stroll through the market once again.

"Yeah," was all he could think to say to that. He wouldn't call her nice per se, nice would be not bailing on him only a short while being marriage, nice would be telling him that she didn't love him anymore to his face, nice would be _not _getting married to another only a month after leaving him. But he couldn't tell Midoriko all that.

He sure as hell wasn't going to mention all of that _and_ that he had had sex with her in the not too distant past. Oh, how he regretted that night more than anything. It had taken him a couple of days to figure out what had happened - to get back at least a bits and pieces of that night. If he did the math right… and Kagome was so early in her pregnancy that she was barely visible then there was a possibility that the child was his.

If it was, or there was even a chance of it, wouldn't she have mentioned something but then? He figured so, and from the way she was acting around him maybe she didn't remember that fumbled night of drunkenness? Or maybe she just wanted to pretend like it never happened. He was more than happy to do just that.

Hell, he had no idea what had gotten him in bed with her again. She shattered his heart, broke the small bits and pieces that were left into even more fragmented ones even after she left him, so why did he do that? Alcohol, it always made him do stupid things. There probably was no rhyme or reason to it. She was just hot and he was horny - obviously equally as drunk, too.

Midoriko and him had been having problems when that happened… they had temporarily called off the wedding and split up during the time period in which he had sex with Kagome. For two weeks they were officially not together, and they were the worst two weeks in the past two years. He realized in them that he missed her, that he didn't want to live without her. After he woke up naked in a hotel bed, foggy on the events of the night before, he felt horrible - had he really had sex with someone else?

Did he really want to have sex with anyone but Midoriko? No… he could live the rest of his life with only having sex with her. So he went to her a couple of days later - once he remembered the _awful_ truth that he had fucked his ex-fiancé. The woman that had temporarily ruined him.

He told her how he had sex with someone else, how he hated himself for it, how he didn't want to live without her anymore. That he wanted to marry her still. And she felt the exact same way. Apparently, she had made the same mistake with an ex-lover of hers and after that she realized that it was Inuyasha she truly wanted. That it was him that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with.

It took a while but they got back to the way things used to be and were both content with the concept of marriage again. Forever and always with the other. They wouldn't have it any other way…

Was that why Kagome was getting a divorce? Had she told damn Greek god looking Jacques that she had fucked around on her trip to Tokyo? Maybe… if so, he got a sort of sick satisfaction from knowing he ruined her marriage. She ran over his heart with a truck, so why not get a little payback? But at the same time… she _was_ pregnant. He wasn't sure what he would have done in Jacques spot, but letting her move to another country to raise the child on her own wasn't something he'd do.

Luckily, that really wasn't his problem.

Kagome _wasn't_ his to worry about anymore.

He didn't have to care that her life was falling apart while his was better than it ever had been. It was her problem. And he sure as hell didn't give a damn about her anymore… that small little tinge of pity for her meant nothing.

* * *

><p><strong><em>AN_**_: Thank you for the reviews. I got another chapter done quicker than I thought so I decided to update early. I guess I'll probably be updating sooner than just once every week or so as long as there are no objections :)  
><em>

_Anyway, thank you for reviewing and please continue to review. I appreciate all of them, large or small.  
><em>


	6. Party Foul

******†:**** Diagnosis: Terminal & Needing Him****** :†******  
><em><strong><em>x<em>** Party Foul **_x_**_**

**_**_****-•°•°•-****_**_**

Bombshell… it was a bombshell that Souta laid on her that evening while she was getting ready to go the party she would rather never attend. He had told her she needn't come with, that he could just tell them she was feeling ill or something, but she said she just wanted to go and show her support for a short while then she'd use that excuse to leave. All the same, she really had never thought about what he asked her while she put her mobile on speaker so she could slip in her baby-doll blue dress.

"Won't Inuyasha figure out what you did when you… die? I mean, he'll know you died from Furei - don't you think he'll put two and two together?"

"No," she'd considered that some, but she had thought she had that solved, "he wouldn't have known I knew before I left him. Almost no one lives as long as I am after getting diagnosed."

"Yeah… but it's Inuyasha we're talking about. You're going to Shikon Hospital now, he has access to all the patient files there. You're going to Suikotsu, him and Inuyasha work closely together on the Furei research. I mean it wouldn't take a lot of effort on his part to just look at your file and see when you were first diagnosed."

That was the bombshell. She hadn't really stopped to think about it like that. Now that she was back in Tokyo things had changed. He _could_ easily do that… and if she told Minamoto-sensei not to let Inuyasha ever see her files then Inuyasha would just know something was up. He was a smart enough guy, he could probably figure something out… he could find out what she did.

That was always the flaw in her plan - _if_ Inuyasha found out he would be furious with her but she was fairly certain he'd forgive her. That he'd mourn over her death like she never wanted him to. That he'd feel guilt for not realizing it sooner…

"What… should I do, Souta?" she asked with an ever so shaky voice while she sat down on her bed. If he'd just found out after she was dead…. it'd be cruel to wait that long to tell him. It'd defeat the purpose of all her suffering if _he_ started to suffer once she was gone.

"Tell him the truth."

"Souta," she muttered with a frown as she looked to her phone, "that's not helping."

"No, I think it is, I think you should just tell him you have Furei and that you found out around the same time you left him and that's what made you realize blah, blah, blah - ya' know, just lie about that part if you still don't want him to know you left him for his own good."

That was actually sort of brilliant when she stopped to think about it. She could just tell him she was dying of Furei and that when she found out she had such little time left she didn't want to be with him but Jacques… it would hurt him, but explain that part away.

"You are so smart, Souta!"

"I feel horrible playing a part in this," he grumbled back, "I think you should just tell him the _full_ truth."

"That would defeat the purpose of everything if I did that," she snapped simply before picking up her phone, "I'll see you soon. Bye."

"Bye," she barely heard before she hung up on him.

She probably put too much effort into her appearance for the short amount of time she told herself she'd be there. It was just… she wanted to look great. She had no interest in tempting Inuyasha away from his fiancé or anything like that but… she didn't know. She still put the effort forth to put perfect waves in her ebony hair, to wear her nicest jewelry, she even bought a new dress for the night - most of her other form fitting ones no longer fit her, anyway.

It took a couple deep breaths for her to gain the courage to get up, grab her coat, and actually go outside to meet her brother and his fiancé to go to the party. She almost chickened out at the elevator but she forced herself to press the 'ground floor' button. On the walk there she mostly tuned out what the others were saying - trying to telling herself over and over again that she _needed_ to do this.

That she needed to tell Inuyasha, to cover all her bases.

Fear festered within her defective heart, what if she started to tell him about her diagnosis and told him the _full_ truth instead of just a partial one? What if she spewed out everything…? What if she didn't find the courage to go up to him and tell him?

It was too much, she didn't think she could do it. Especially when they arrived at the penthouse - the gorgeous place that was supreme to all the elegant rooms in any hotel she had ever seen. A place that looked too expensive for anyone to afford, something she had only seen an equal to in movies… but she supposed that was exactly right for the Miyoko family. Inuyasha was lucky to have caught the attention of the youngest daughter.

Surely he'd never ruin all of _this_ for her. Certainly he'd not even think twice about what she would tell him. He would just think, maybe, that was sad, and then go on marrying a Miyoko. That's what she hoped at least.

"What are you doing here?" Caused her to jump some before turning to see her cousin, Miroku. A curious expression coated his face while his violet eyes moved up and down her. She supposed he knew that she was pregnant as well from the fact that his gaze stopped for a long while on her stomach before moving up to meet her hazel gaze.

"I was at the market with Souta today and Miyoko-san invited me and him," she explained simply with a small one shoulder shrug.

"Is that so?" he questioned, "so… I heard you moved back to Tokyo."

"I have," she acknowledged. It really shouldn't be so awkward to have a conversation with a cousin she had always considered like a brother but… when she broke Inuyasha like she did she burned the bridge that linked her and Miroku, too.

"I also heard you are getting a divorce."

"Yep," she sighed while her gaze shifted away. She didn't want to go over that conversation again, it was hard finding good reasons to give for why Jacques and her were getting a divorce when she was pregnant of all times. He had been very good to her over the years, went out of his way to help her when he had no obligation to do so, so hearing everyone just say mean things about him afterwards annoyed her. He was a good man, he didn't deserve that.

"And are pregnant?"

She cringed some at that before looking back at him, "yes…"

"Why are you getting a divorce, then?"

"It's complicated," she stated stiffly, hoping that was a good enough sign that he would know not to pester her further about it.

"Doesn't your husband - I'm sorry, soon to be ex-husband - care that you are so far away and pregnant with his child?" Miroku personally couldn't grasp that, how could two people decide to get a divorce at such a time? Couldn't they just work out whatever the problem was for their child's sake?

"Miroku," Kagome sighed heavily, "I really would rather not talk about this right now. Have you seen Inuyasha?"

"Why?" Miroku quickly questioned wearily.

"I want to talk to him about something," if she didn't do it that night she would probably lose all courage to talk to him about it ever.

"You know you really broke him when you left like you did," Miroku accused, watching her cringe slightly and look away. "I hope you don't plan to return to Tokyo to try and win him back or something like that. He has a perfectly happy life here with Midoriko and it wouldn't be fair if you tried to do that, Kagome."

"Honestly, I have no intention of doing anything of the sort," she insisted harshly. It was far from what she wanted-the exact opposite. "I'm happy for him. He deserves someone like her."

"Good," he stated before pointing out his friend, "he's over there. I don't know what you want to talk to him about but I doubt he really wants to talk to you."

"Thanks, Miroku, it's always _great_ to talk to you," she sarcastically said with a forced smile before she walked off. Letting Miroku in on her secret like she did with Souta wasn't an option. Souta's loyalties lied more with her than with Inuyasha, while Miroku thought of Inuyasha like a brother. If she told him the truth Miroku wouldn't be able to keep the secret.

So she supposed she just had to deal with him disliking her for the rest of her life… she could do that. If she could live with the man she loved hating her, it shouldn't be that much more difficult to deal with her cousin's contempt.

"Inuyasha?" Kagome started once he walked away from the group of people he was talking to. Every man at the party was in a nice suit, even Inuyasha, which she found a bit funny. He had always hated wearing them but he seemed comfortable enough.

"What?" he asked, an annoyed edge to the word as he glanced away from her in search of someone else.

"Can…" she swallowed slightly, "can we talk? In private somewhere? I need to tell you something important…"

That stopped him for a moment before his auburn eyes shifted back to her. "Is it _really_ important? Like, of vital importance, something I really need to know now? I'm getting married in two weeks, Kagome."

"I'm aware of that…" she thought it was of vital importance but was it for him? She supposed not. It wasn't like they were together anymore, it had been four long years.

"So can whatever you're about to tell me wait a month then, until I get back from my honeymoon?" He prayed to every and any god that whatever 'important' information she needed to tell him had nothing to do with the fact that she was knocked up. Gods… if she got pregnant from their one night stand he'd be furious. He didn't want to flat out ask that, though. And if it was related to that it was of vital importance, she'd tell him right then - though, it was really in poor taste that she waited to tell him _then_ at the party of all times. If it wasn't, if it had to do with something else - though, what he had no idea - then it could wait.

"It can wait until then," she supposed. She had no intention of ruining his marriage and if he was already married he'd probably handle it better. There'd be no chance that he'd leave his wife over the news. Not that she really expected him to, whatever feelings him once had for her were squashed by everything she had done. "I mean, it's really not _that_ important."

"Alright then," he nodded before walking away - letting out the breath he held. Thank the _gods_. If it wasn't _that_ important then it surely wasn't the news that he was going to be a father.

"Hey, you alright?" Souta inquired after his sister returned to him. She just forced a smile and nodded, she'd only stay for ten or so more minutes before leaving. Really… she hated being there. She wanted him to be happy, but actually witnessing him glowing with proud from being engaged to the Miyoko girl was hard to bear.

"Suikotsu," Inuyasha greeted after he found his friend. Most of the people related to the Furei research had been invited the party, after all the Miyoko family financed most of it. "How's it going?"

"Fine," he answered with a nod of his head, "I lost my wife somewhere in this crowd, though."

Inuyasha laughed lightly at that, "I think I saw her somewhere earlier. So… you feeling better?"

The last time they had talked him had seemed pretty down about his new patient. It wasn't uncommon for someone with a profession like his - always being surrounded by death - to get depressed every once and a while. He just hoped it didn't last too long.

"Yeah," he supposed. Most of the time he was able to pull himself away from patients, to keep up an emotional barrier so he didn't get attached or anything of the sort but… there was something about Higurashi Kagome that got her past that wall rather quickly. Her story had been touching and she even reminded him of someone he knew. It'd be hard being her doctor but he was the best there was in Japan, he couldn't recommended she go somewhere else merely because it made him uncomfortable.

"Oh, this might interest you, you know that patient I told you about?"

Inuyasha just nodded.

"She was in the experimental treatment in Paris, did I mention that? It worked very well. I talked with a couple of the doctors yesterday about her file and they thought if she remained in the program she had a good chance of being the first to have the disease go into remission. Wouldn't that be great if the treatment worked that well?"

"Yeah, it would," Inuyasha eagerly asserted, "I've been watching it fairly closely. They are doing some things I wouldn't have thought to. So, is your patient French then? What's she doing in Japan?"

"No, she's Japanese," he corrected, "but she thought she had the best chance in that program so… she married a French friend of hers to get citizenship so she could get admitted into the program. From what I gathered, that was the only reason they got married. Though, I can't blame her for that."

"Who could?" Inuyasha asked.

"Inuyasha!" caught both of their attention, Midoriko waved her hand above her head to summon him back to her.

"I've got to go play nice a little longer," Inuyasha said with a sigh before he parted ways from Suikotsu to find his way back to Midoriko. Really, he didn't enough all the events he had to go to with Midoriko or wearing a suit and having to deal with all her family's fair-weather friends but he supposed that was just something he'd have to get use to if he was going to marry her...

**Ж**

One thing bothered her the most about the situation she was stuck in. _What_ would happen to her baby once she was gone? She didn't plan in the least on telling Inuyasha he was the father since she didn't want to make him take it. Then again, did she really have a right to keep that from him? What if he wanted the child?

Her mother would always take good care of her child, she knew that, and supposed that was really the only option she had. Souta had mentioned that he and Sachiko would take care of her baby if it ever came to that but she didn't want to force her brother to do that for her. It wasn't that she thought he'd make a bad parent, but that he wasn't ready. She didn't even know if Sachiko wanted children, let alone to take care of someone else's.

She didn't want to put a strain of her baby brother's relationship.

There was time for her to figure out… she just needed to have a solid plan before she was gone.

"Higurashi-san," Suikotsu greeted once he finally entered the room. It had taken him longer than normal, which allowed Kagome's mind to wander as it so often did while she was in a doctor's office. "Sorry, I got caught up with something else."

"It's fine," she assured him with a smile, "I understand."

"So you told the nurse that you aren't feeling very well?" he asked while he looked over the chart he held, "the nausea could be because of the pregnancy. Try drinking some pomegranate juice, that should help with the morning sickness. If it doesn't then it might be linked to Furei."

"And the headaches? The fever? The general aches?" Those were all symptoms of Furei, she had suffered off and on from them throughout her treatment but not at this level and never all at once.

He frowned at that while he placed the chart down to look at her, "yes… those are problematic. I can prescribe you some medication for them to see if it helps, all of which shouldn't affect your pregnancy. Are you going to a obstetrician here in Tokyo?"

"Yes, one here at Shikon," she confirmed, "a Kobayashi-sensei."

"Ah, yes, he's good, you've told him about Furei?"

She nodded, as soon as she told him that he quickly explained to her how that could complicated the pregnancy. Apparently he had a few patients in the past that suffered from it, too, and most of them did not end well… miscarriage was a heightened risk for someone with her illness.

"I would like to run a couple of tests today," Suikotsu stated, "to see how your levels are."

"Alright," she had expected that and gotten used to all the poking and prodding that came with her disease a while ago.

"Also, could I share your file with a colleague of mine? I'm asking all my patients for that right," he explained.

"Sure," her file had been studied by a ton of people, so why not one more? It wasn't as if there was anything embarrassing in there.

"Great, now why don't you get changed into the gown and I'll be back shortly to take you to run the first test," Suikotsu suggested before he picked up her file and left the room. He went to his office to pick up the nineteen others that had agreed to let him share their files for Furei research and went down the hallway from his practice to the research labs.

"Inuyasha," Suikotsu called out to gain his attention from his work, before he could say anything in return he placed the files in front of him. "These are all the patients that agreed to let me share their information with you."

"Oh, thanks," he said with a nod as he picked them up, "I don't have time to look at them right now, but I'm sure they'll be helpful. The more data we have the more we can figure out about Furei, right?"

"Exactly," Suikotsu acknowledged with a smile, "well, I have to get back to a patient. Good luck."

"You as well," Inuyasha replied before he opened a drawer and placed the files in there.

Later, he'd have time to review them.

* * *

><p><strong><em>AN_**_: Yes, I know this story is frustrating but you pretty much knew that coming into it with the summary and categorization of romance/angst. Anyway, thank you for the reviews. I appreciate all of them, no matter the length.  
><em>


	7. Almost Truth

******†:**** Diagnosis: Terminal & Needing Him****** :†******  
><em><strong><em>x<em>** **_Almost Truth_** **_x_**_**

**_**_****-•°•°•-****_**_**

"You're dumb," were not the words she had expected from her little brother's lips after she told him about her experience at the doctor's office. Her levels were in the acceptable range, but not as good as they had been while she was on the treatment. So how did that make her dumb? She just lifted a brow and stared at him for a long while. "The doctor said he wanted to share his files with some colleague of his, right? Your doctor is Suikotsu, right? Inuyasha and him _work_ together. Suikotsu gives him files all the time."

"Oh," she gasped before covering her mouth. She hadn't even thought about that.

"You should have just told Inuyasha about the whole Furei thing at his party like you said you would then that wouldn't be a problem," Souta stated. "Now if he sees you were diagnosed before you left him he'll figure out what you did. It'll be harder to convince him whatever lie you want to tell him then. Hence, you're dumb."

"Damn it, Souta, why didn't you tell me that sooner?"

"I already _told_ you that Suikotsu and him work closely, they are even good friends, moron," he countered. "You're the one who forgot."

Quickly, she pulled out her phone and dialed up Minamoto Suikotsu's number. The one he had given her to call whenever she needed - so she figured it was his private number. It took four rings but he finally answered.

"Minamoto Suikotsu."

"Minamoto-sensei? It's Higurashi Kagome," she started shyly, "remember how I told you the other day you could share my file with your colleague…?"

"Yes."

"I was wondering… if it's not too much trouble could I not do that?"

"Oh? Do you mind me asking why? Your file in particular, with your history with the Paris treatment, would be very helpful to his research."

"Is your colleague Taiko Inuyasha?" she questioned, she wouldn't mind having her information shared with anyone but him.

"Yes, it is. Have you heard of him?"

That was one of saying it… "um, look, it's just a personal reason. Could you please not share my information with him?"

For a while the other side of the line was quiet before he finally spoke again, "of course. It is your personal information after all. I did already give it to him, though. But I'll get it back."

She cringed at that knowledge, had Inuyasha already looked at them? Did he already know? Oh, gods…

"He probably hasn't had the time to look at them, he's pretty busy right now," Suikotsu assured her, "I'll see you at your next appointment."

"Thank you, Minamoto-sensei," was the last thing he heard before he hung up. That was an odd talk to say the least, he had never had a patient renege like that.

"Who was that?" a lovely chocolate eyed lady across from him at the lunch table inquired. He couldn't help but smile when he looked up from his phone to see his wife. She was a nurse at the hospital, it was how they originally met, but it was thanks to constant pressure from his friend Taiko Inuyasha that he finally found the courage to ask her out on a date.

It didn't take long for them to end up engaged and married.

"Nothing, Kikyou, just a patient of mine," he explained simply while he put his phone away, "it was rather strange. I had gotten her permission to give her file to the research department and now she wants me to get it back."

"You give your patients your personal number?" Kikyou questioned with a bent brow, "and you wonder why you always get so attached."

"I don't _always_," he countered, "just sometimes. This one… it hardest with her. She actually reminds me of you. I think that's why."

"How so?"

"Well, you two look alike," he had noticed that right away. He had also taken not that her last name was the same as Kikyou's maiden name, but he had figured if they were related one of them would have mentioned something to him. Higurashi wasn't a common name but it wasn't a strange one either. It was likely that there were a couple families out there with that name. "She lived in Paris for a while so she speaks French like you do."

Her brows flexed together at hearing that, "is that all…?"

"All I can think off the top of my head," he answered, "why?"

"What's her name?"

"You know I'm not really suppose to disclose such personal information," Suikotsu stated while he crumbled his sandwich wrapper together. His lunch was about over and he really should rush over to Inuyasha - hopefully he hadn't looked at the files yet.

If the girl looked like her and lived in Paris… how many could fit that description? "It's not… a Higurashi Kagome, is it?"

It was a silly guess, certainly her cousin would have mentioned if she had Furei. She was aware that she had moved home finally so she knew she was in Tokyo. They had drifted apart since she moved out of the country, she hadn't even attended her wedding. Though she had wanted to, it just happened to be in the winter and Charles de Gaulle airport was having a lot of problems with the weather and her flight continuously got canceled to the point that she missed it.

She hadn't seen Kagome in almost two years so her husband wouldn't know what she looked like and Kagome wouldn't know Suikotsu if she saw him. They really didn't even talk much, so she probably wouldn't even recall what her husband did for a living - it's not like Kikyou could remember much about Jacques something-or-other. The rather random man that Kagome had gone to marry instead of Inuyasha.

"How… did you know?" Suikotsu questioned carefully, the way his wife's eyes widened at his confirmation concerned him. "You don't know her… do you? I know that you were Higurashi Kikyou but I thought you would have mentioned if a family member had Furei or that she was going to start seeing me."

"I would have if I had known," she insisted, "she's my cousin, the one that was going to be in our wedding but couldn't come because of a canceled flight, remember?"

"Oh, yes," he chimed with a nod, "so, does she know Inuyasha then?"

"Yes," very well. Kikyou had known since they were children that Kagome had a crush on him, even when they were dating in high school, so once they finally got together she had been certain that the two would have a happily ever after. When they got engaged Kikyou was positive it was going to be one of those perfect marriages… until Kagome surprised everyone and left to France with nothing more than letter and a couple of calls to her, Souta, and Miroku weeks after the fact.

"That might explain why she doesn't want me to give the file to him, then, I suppose."

"When was she diagnosed?"

"Kikyou, I love you," Suikotsu always started sentences he knew would displease her like that, "but I can't tell you that. It's personal information. Doctor patient privilege is important to me."

"I'm a nurse at Shikon, I have access to patient files," she countered staunchly.

"Yes, but you are a nurse in the prenatal ward, not my practice. Then again, she is pregnant-"

"Kagome's _what_?" Kikyou gawked with wide eyes and parted lips. Her little cousin was pregnant? No one had mentioned that to her. But did she hear she was getting a divorce? Wasn't that why she returned to Tokyo?

"Oh… you didn't know that either?" Suikotsu supposed while he stood up, "well I've got to go do a couple of things. I'll see you after work."

"I'm going to go see Kagome," Kikyou stated as she stood up, "so I don't know when I'll be home tonight."

"I feel like this is going to get me into some sort of trouble," he mumbled to himself but it was too late now. As quickly as he could he found his way back up to his floor and down to the research labs - catching Inuyasha just as he returned from his lunch as well. "Hey! Remember those files that I gave you the other day?"

"Yeah," Inuyasha replied with a lifted brow, it wasn't like Suikotsu to look so flustered.

"I need one back. So can I see them?"

"Why?" He asked while he opened the drawer that housed the twenty files.

"I forgot to get her permission and when I asked she said she'd rather her file not be shared," he lied swiftly, but he figured that was better than exposing the truth.

"Alright, what's her name?" Inuyasha inquired while he started to flip through the files but before he could get a good look at any Suikotsu snatched them out of his hands to find the file himself. "What's wrong with you?"

"I just feel like this will be quicker, I'm in a hurry," he explained before he pulled Kagome's file out, "have you looked at these yet?"

"No, I was going to get to them tomorrow."

"Great, great," Suikotsu nodded with a weak attempted at a smile, "well, I'll be seeing you around."

"Alright… maybe you need to switch to decaf, Suikotsu," Inuyasha suggested cautiously, all he got in reply was a nervous laugh as his friend waved and hurried away. Suikotsu usually wasn't so strange… but he guessed everyone had their off days.

**Ж**

Oh… what if Inuyasha knew? _What if_? Could she still tell him the lie she had planned out if he came to her to ask why she hadn't told him all those years ago? She didn't know… but she hadn't much time to lament over that fact. An ache in her gut caught her attention, one that quickly became intense.

Luckily, Souta was still there or else she would have freaked out more. He called a cab and was able to get her to the hospital quickly enough. It helped her feel more at ease - well, as at ease as she could possibly - to have him there, holding her hand while she was examined.

"Furei gives women a much higher risk at miscarriages…" Kobayashi, her doctor, cautiously started while he looked from her brother to Kagome. "There really is no way to prevent them, luckily that did not happen this time. I'd like to recommend you stay here under observation for the night. It also seems like you have anemia. So you'll need to start taking iron and folic acid supplements. Have you been feeling tried or weak lately? Fait or a shortness of breath?"

"All of those," she answered softly, but she had merely thought it was related to her Furei.

"Oh, gods, Kagome," Souta started the second they were alone again, "you can't live alone - what if this happens again? You should move home with mom or live with me and Sachiko."

"Souta… I don't want to be a burden on you or mom-"

"Mom is going to freak out when she hears you're in the hospital, she's going to ask you to move home, too," he stated. "And you should. You shouldn't be alone Kagome. I hate to think of you by yourself."

"Souta… don't you have to go back to work?"

"Ha, as if," he countered quickly. "I'm not leaving you alone here."

She forced a smile at that, at least she had one person she could rely on. A knock on her door caught both of their attention, after she called out 'come in' her eyes widened at the sight of who it was. Souta quickly stood up, too.

"Kikyou," he greeted while he walked over to hug her, "I'm glad you're here."

"When I heard the name Higurashi I thought that it couldn't be but…" Kikyou looked to her cousin, apparently it was. After she got off her shift she had planned to call up Kagome but apparently that wasn't necessary. "Could you give us a moment, Souta?"

"Sure," he nodded fervently before he waved to his sister and exited the room.

"Hi, Kikyou…"

"Kagome," she started while she walked over to sit on the edge of the bed, "I've been meaning to come and see you since you came home. I didn't know you were pregnant, though… or that you had Furei."

Her breath hitched at that, how did she find out? If she knew did that mean Inuyasha did…? Who else knew? Did Miroku?

"My husband is Minamoto Suikotsu, he was talking about a patient that he was particularly fond of and… it sounded a great deal like you. Kagome, how long have you had Furei? Why haven't you told anyone? Does your mother know?"

"No… just Souta right now," she whispered. Why did everything suddenly have to be so entangled? Her Furei doctor not only worked closely with Inuyasha but was married to her cousin? Fate had been working so well for her four years ago, essentially pushing her in the direction of leaving Inuyasha for France and now it seemed so cruel - as if it was demanding she take that back. That she tell him the truth.

The fear of losing her child, the hormones, the general emotional distress led to tears streaming down her face before Kikyou wrapped her arms around her and pulled her close to pat her upon the back. Trying sooth her cousin the best she could.

"Kagome, tell me what's going on," she requested softly while she stroked her slightly tangled ebony strands. "I want to help in any way I can."

It was so tempting… too tempting. The moment she stopped her sobbing she would tell her cousin the truth, the whole truth. From when she found out she had Furei, to why she left Inuyasha, and even go a step further than what she had with Souta. She found herself spewing out what had happened at the hotel that night she had come to visit…

"Inuyasha's the father of your child?" Kikyou whispered with awe, "Kagome… have you told him that?"

"Of course not," she countered quickly while she whipped some new tears away. "He's getting married. He doesn't need to deal with any of this."

"Kagome… it's his child, I think Inuyasha would want to know."

"I think he should just get married to that Miyoko and not worry about any of this," Kagome stated swiftly. "Please don't tell him, Kikyou. Please don't tell anyone - I haven't told anyone but Jacques all of this."

Kikyou pressed her lips together. How could she see Inuyasha almost every day at work and not tell him any of this? She wasn't in a position to know whether what Kagome did was right or wrong, she did know that she surely saved Inuyasha a great deal of heartache - even though she caused a fair share herself already.

"What's going to happen to your baby once…?" she was gone? Once Furei finally did her in?

Kagome shook her head lightly, she hadn't figured that part out yet. "I finally told my mom I was pregnant… I guess she'll take care of the child."

"Do you think she'll be able to handle that?"

"I hope so, I don't really have a lot of other options. And, no, Kikyou, I am _not_ going to tell Inuyasha. I'd ruin his marriage if I did…"

"If that's your final say, then let me and Suikotsu take the child if - god forbid - it's ever needed."

Quickly, stun shifted across Kagome's face at the request. "Kik-Kikyou… would you really want that? I don't want to make you do anything you don't want to-"

"Nonsense," Kikyou waved such an idea way, "I would love to. Suikotsu and I… we've been trying to have children but… it turns out I'm unable. If we were ever going to have children we'd have to adopt anyway."

"Oh, Kikyou, I'm sorry…"

"Don't be, maybe this is just fate?"

Maybe… it did appear that fate was once again on her side to keep the secret. It had led her to Kikyou once more and an offer she couldn't refuse. She knew her child would be in great hands if her cousin ever had to raise her child.

**Ж**

It took a twenty-four hour period of observation before she was able to check herself out. For now she seemed to be fine… but she had thought she was fine before and almost lost her baby. She couldn't deal with that - she _couldn't_ have a miscarriage. She already loved her child deeply, she didn't know what she'd do if that happened… if Furei took that from her, too.

Kikyou had the day off and Souta had to go to work, so she thought she could get home well enough on her home. Neither had to go out of their way to help her with that. After all she only lived about a fifteen minute train ride away from the hospital. But she found herself sitting in a chair in the hallway of the ground floor instead, wrapping her arms around herself as she tried to pull herself together.

She just needed a minute or two and then she'd be fine…

Inuyasha had no intention of going to Shikon on his day off, he had last minute wedding things to deal with but he wanted to grab a file to study over the weekend - and, really, he didn't want to have to deal with those last minute wedding things either… Midoriko wanted a big wedding, the Miyoko family insisted on it, but he didn't. He would have been fine with a small ceremony.

But he supposed a wedding was always more about the bride than the groom so he'd just deal with it. As soon as he walked into Shikon a certain someone caught his attention - an obviously very upset someone, at that. He stopped in the midst of the hallway to stare at her for a bit, what could be so wrong that Kagome looked like she had been crying?

He really should continue to walk, ignore her existence completely, but he found himself walking over to her instead.

"Kagome?" She didn't respond in the least, so he figured she didn't hear him. "_Kagome_?"

"Hello," she whispered once she realized someone was speaking to her, but when she looked up to see it was Inuyasha her heart sank. She didn't want to deal with him right now…

"Are you alright?"

She forced a smile as she stood up, "yeah, fine, I was just on my way out so-"

"Why are you here?" he interrupted, he had seen her there not too long ago and she didn't have to go to appointments that often just because she was pregnant. In less there was something wrong with the baby… that would explain the puffy red eyes and sniffles.

"Oh, no reason," she said weakly with a wave of her hand. "I really should be going-"

"You look like you've been crying, so you were crying for no reason?" he found that hard to believe - then again, he didn't know why he was pressuring her to tell him. It wasn't as if it really had anything to do with him.

"Uh, it's just the hormones from being pregnant," she stated with a shrug, "I just had to come in because…" she didn't want to say how she almost lost the baby. She didn't want his pity. "I have anemia, it's common sometimes with pregnancies. I just need to take a couple more pills for iron and things like that. It's no big deal."

"Alright," he coaxed out while he glanced around before looking back to her, "do you need a ride home? I was just about to leave." Even though he really wasn't, he had just gotten there after all… "I could drive you."

"You have a car now?" he hadn't when they were together. He actually thought that the notion of driving in a busy city like Tokyo would be annoying - at least that's what he always said.

"I got a car, lots of things are different since you left," he stated stiffly.

"You really don't need to, I can just take the train."

"Kagome, I'm driving you," he firmly insisted. "Souta would want me to. He's always worried about you being alone all of a sudden."

"He is…?" she couldn't help but frown about that. "I hate worrying him…"

"Then let me drive you," he kept up and so she gave in. Her eyes were mostly fixated on the ground while he led her to his car - a nice audi, at that.

"You're doing really well for yourself, huh?" she commented as she buckled up and glanced around the leather interior.

"Yeah, I am," and he was ever so pleased that she seemed to notice that. He wanted to rub it in her face that he had a perfect life. But… at the moment he didn't get an immense amount of pleasure out of it. Seeing her on the verge of tears like that earlier didn't make him as happy as he thought he'd be.

She seemed so fragile… so broken. He wanted to be fine with it, wanted to rejoice in her misery a little, but he didn't feel anything but a tinge of sadness about it. He _hated_ it. Why should he still give a damn about her when she left him like that?

But, gods, he had loved her _so much_.

"Hey, what is it that you wanted to tell me the other night?" he asked while he pulled in front of her apartment complex.

She looked from her building to him, they were alone, it'd be easy to tell him but… she didn't have the energy to lie to him right then. So she just smiled faintly and said, "it can wait."

"You could just tell me now," he stated simply.

"It's not important," she assured him.

He rolled his eyes in annoyance before he lifted his hand to place it on her forehead, causing her eyes to widen with surprise. "You feel hot, you were only there because of anemia?"

"Fevers every once and a while isn't uncommon in pregnancies…" Kagome mumbled while she pushed his hand away. It was very common for those that suffered from Furei, sometimes reaching highly harmful levels, but she didn't want him to think about that right then.

He couldn't help it, he had been dying to know the answer, so he blurted out a question that had been on his mind for ages. "Are you happy with the decisions you've made? With leaving me for Jacques? With the outcome being as it is?"

Her being pregnant, going through a divorce, and all alone? She supposed that was the outcome he was stating, but how could she say anything but, "yes, I am, thank you for the ride."

He didn't know what answer he was looking for… he wasn't sure what he would have done if she had said no and burst out in tears to beg for his forgiveness. But hearing her say she was fine with what she did - happy even - still sent a sting through his heart.

Fucking Kagome, she couldn't just leave him alone. She had to make him miserable… why couldn't she have just stayed in France - far, far away from him?

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **_Ouch. Reviewers are so mean to poor Inuyasha in this story… It's not like he knows what's going on, remember? He thinks Kagome left him to go marry Jacques still, broke his heart multiple times, so let's give the guy a little break. Granted, he's a bit dense and sometimes dumb but that's just Inuyasha for you._


	8. Revelations

******†:**** Diagnosis: Terminal & Needing Him****** :†******  
><em><strong><em>x<em>** **_**_Revelations_**_** **_x_**_**

**_**_****-•°•°•-****_**_**

Often Minamoto Kikyou would visit Taiko Inuyasha while he was working, after all they were employed at the same hospital. It took some effort but after they broke up they stayed friends. She did the same thing as the rest of Kagome's family after she left him-stopped talking about her to him. Just like the rest of them, just like she had been shocked to hear Kagome moved to France and left Inuyasha.

So when she came to see him on one of her breaks and her first topic was her cousin he walked away. Regrettably, she just followed him.

"What makes you think I want to talk about her?" Inuyasha snapped finally with a glare.

"So you still hate her for leaving like she did?" Kikyou questioned with a tilt of her head, ignoring that harsh stare that she received in return. She had grown immune to that look a long while ago.

"Hate… hate is a strong term, I just don't like her at all and would rather never deal with her again so don't talk about her to me." It was true, he had stopped hating her for what she did a long time ago. Really, if he stopped to think about it, he probably would have realized he never actually hated her he was just… crushed. Beyond anything, there was nothing that could have hurt him like what she did.

Now that she was back she didn't make any effort to make amends, either. _She_ should be the one to say sorry, not that she was happy with doing what she did. She was… impossible.

Oh, how Kikyou wanted to tell him the truth. He'd surely break of his engagement and return to Kagome but… it wasn't what her cousin wanted so she just pressed her lips shut and shook her head.

"What's it matter?"

"I'm sorry I brought it up," she countered before walking away, "see you later."

"Your wife is weird," Inuyasha stated as soon as he opened the door to Suikotsu's office, that statement was enough to make him look away from the file that he was examining.

"Why?" He asked curiously with a bent brow, "What did she do?"

Inuyasha just shook his head, Suikotsu didn't know the full story about him and Kagome so he didn't feel like filling him in. Instead he just walked into his office and sat down on his couch. "Never mind, so, how's it going? How are things going with that one French patient of yours?"

The one that wanted her file back because she had some sort of connection with him? Suikotsu didn't know how to handle that situation. So he simply said, "oh, fine, all things considered."

"Is that her file?" Inuyasha inquired while he pointed to it, which sparked Suikotsu to stand up and pick it up to hold it against his chest. "I would really like to look at it, can you ask her for permission? I'm sure that someone who has been in that experimental treatment in France would have a very interesting file."

"Yes, she does," Suikotsu confirmed with a nod, "so I'll ask her when I see her. I've actually got an appointment with her now so… I've got to go, bye."

"Alright," Inuyasha barely got out before his friend was gone. First Kikyou's odd behavior and now Suikotsu running out like his pants were on fire? That was… strange. He shook his head slightly while he stood up, he knew setting those two up was the right thing to do. They were perfect for one another.

As soon as Kikyou got home from visiting her cousin in the hospital she told him essentially everything, editing out most of the details, but he got the general point. It was a seriously weird situation that he didn't find himself comfortable being in. Inuyasha was his friend but Kagome was his patient-and apparently family, since she was Kikyou's cousin.

"So, we're going to take the child," Kikyou had stated rather than asking. "I hope Kagome makes it for a long time, but once she… you know, I told her we'd take care of her child."

"You did?" Suikotsu asked, after struggling to not choke on the warm team he was drinking. "Did you consider consulting me on that?"

And that had started quiet an argument between the two but in the end he did want children with Kikyou someday and he supposed the child would be blood-at least for Kikyou. If Kikyou had mentioned the father was Inuyasha, though, he wouldn't have been able to take all of that on. There would be no way he could keep the secret, so she lied to him and said it was Jacques'.

Everyone involved with Kagome's hush-hush situation had to do their fair share of lying to cover up hers. Souta couldn't tell his mother that she had Furei, couldn't tell his fiancé anything that was really going on, and had to lie to his best friend. Now Kikyou had to lie to Suikotsu. Of course, Inuyasha had to keep the fact that he had slept with her from Midoriko as well. His fiancé knew he had sex with someone else but she didn't need to know her.

"Kobayashi-san told me about your hospitalization," Suikotsu stated while he leaned against the wall. They didn't have an appointment per se but Kagome had called him earlier that day and asked if he had time to see her. "Are you feeling any better now?"

"Some," she supposed, the medicine that Suikotsu had prescribed her had began to take affect and the added supplement did make her feel a bit better. But that really wasn't what she wanted to talk to him about. "I didn't know that you were Kikyou's husband. She must have mentioned by now that I'm her cousin?"

"And Inuyasha's ex-fiancé, I gather he doesn't know about your condition," Suikotsu answered softly.

"He doesn't know I have Furei, I plan to tell him just… not yet," she promised with a weak attempt at a smile while she leaned against the wall next to him. "I love Kikyou, she mentioned how you two might… take my child once I'm gone? I just wanted to make sure you were alright with that, too."

"I am," he assured her, though it had taken a while for him to come to terms with that fact. "We want children someday and you are family."

"But we barely know each other… I'd hate for you to feel obligated to do this for me."

"I think we're going to get to know each other very well." After all, she was his wife's cousin and his patient. They were bound to spend a great deal of time together now. Apparently, he was doomed to care about her. It'd be more difficult to lose her than any other patient… but he had to prepare himself for that.

"I hope so," she replied with a warm smile.

Suikotsu… said he had an appoint with the French patient but when Inuyasha left to return to his lab he saw him standing in the hallway talking to Kagome. He even watched as he opened the file that he had said _was_ the French patient's to talk to her apparently about what was within it… why would he be doing that?

He supposed that maybe they were socializing because of their connections to Kikyou but he wouldn't be discussing private patient information with her over it. Suikotsu was a hard-ass about that type of stuff, after all he ran into his office the other day to get back a file. Inuyasha tried to shake off that thought while he walked back to his lab to get back to work. But he couldn't stop letting his mind wander to what he had seen.

When he stopped to think about it… the French patient really wasn't French, she was Japanese who married a Frenchmen to get citizenship so she could join the experimental trial. That trial started about four years ago and then she left it because she was pregnant to return to Tokyo. It couldn't… no. He was thinking too much. It wasn't like that patient could really be… it couldn't. No. So what if there were some similarities?

No… Kagome would have mentioned that she had Furei. She would have told him. Wouldn't she?

By the end of the day it bothered him so much that he accessed the patient database and entered 'Higurashi Kagome' into it to pull up her file. It was against the rules for him to look at a patient's file that wasn't his but… he still clicked on it to review the private content within the data. Surely it was probably just had her history from all her doctor's appointments when she was in Tokyo, maybe a few transfers from Paris, and then whatever she had been doing for her pregnancy.

There wouldn't be anything about Furei because Kagome couldn't have it.

Yet… it did. It said she had it. That she was diagnosed four years ago… three days before she left him to be exact. How the fuck could that be true? How could she _not_ tell him? How could she leave him?

But then again it explained one thing-why she married Jacques.

Why would she go all the way to France when there was a trail in Japan that she could enter into?

He had to leave work early that day to go clear up everything. The database was probably just wrong. Kagome couldn't have Furei. Sure her dad had died of it but… but she would have told him. She just would have. He was glad he was such a good guy and drove her home that day so he knew where she lied. He had to look at the buttons to see which one had her name by it. Hopefully she was home…

"Hello?" he heard her through the communicator, "who's there?"

"Kagome, it's Inuyasha, let me up," he ordered.

For a while there was nothing until she spoke, "Inuyasha…?"

"Let me up," he repeated, "I really need to talk to you. Hurry it up already."

"What do you want to talk about?"

"You want to have a conversation over a fucking intercom, Kagome? Let me up."

She paused for a long while before she pressed the right button to let him up. He didn't sound pleased so what could it be...? Her heart raced while she waited for him to make his way up to her level, she hesitated when she heard a knock on her door. She wrapped her sweater around herself tighter before she opened it to see a rather fuming Inuyasha standing there. Without being invited, he walked right in to shut the door behind him.

"Tell me the truth, do you have Furei?" he ordered while he pointed to her.

"How… did you know?" She stuttered while her hazels averted his gaze, "who told you?"

"You," he choked for a moment, unable to say anything further until he cleared his throat. "You really have it?"

"I wanted to tell you," she muttered, forcing herself to look at him finally. "I was diagnosed four years ago, before I left you."

"So you leave me to go marry Jacques so you could get French citizenship and into the experimental treatment in France?" Just like Suikotsu had said but that didn't make sense at all. There was a much simpler way for her to handle it. One were they could have been together still, still got married even. "Why didn't you just _tell_ me? Why didn't you just enter the treatment here in Tokyo? Who knows?"

"Souta… and Kikyou, I haven't told anyone else," she confessed. She wanted to tell him the lie she had practiced but she couldn't... so she pressed her lips together.

"Kagome… tell me the truth."

When he looked at her so sincerely and asked for the truth how could she give him anything but that? So she took a shaky breath in as she blinked away the threat of tears. "Inuyasha… I'm so sorry. I really am but when I got diagnosed I had to leave."

"No you _didn't_, you could have entered the Tokyo program!"

"If I did that I would have had to leave it and I know how important that research was to you! And.. and I didn't want you to have to… to watch me wither away like you sister and mother," she couldn't hold back the tears anymore, a series started to trickle it down. "I couldn't make you happy like you deserved anymore. I couldn't force you to marry me."

"You… you think I'd want to leave you because you have Furei?"

"No! I knew you wouldn't," she stuttered while she tried her hardest to find a steady breath. "I… I didn't want you to have to take care of me, to leave your job, to… t-to make you suffer like that. Now you're happy with a beautiful fiancé that you can live a long and great life with. What I did was right, I'm so sorry it hurt you, but y… you're happy now."

Silence took him for a moment while he processed what she had just said… "you're so goddamn stupid. That wasn't your decision to make! You should have told me!"

"No I shouldn't!" she countered while she whipped some tears away, "_listen _to me, Inuyasha. I couldn't make you happy anymore. I couldn't force you to watch me as I died. I… I wanted you to remember me as beautiful instead of withered, ill, and dying. Please, Inuyasha, try to see it from my point of view."

"Did you love Jacques?" He snapped, that had been what really killed him once she was gone… to find out that she had married Jacques so quickly. That apparently he meant nothing, that maybe she was having an affair with him the whole time, or something like that. It tore him apart almost as badly as when she left with just a fucking note. "Did you marry him just for citizenship or did you really leave me for him?"

"I…" she inhaled unsteadily but deep while she blinked away some more water. "The truth?"

"Obviously," he grunted, that was the dumbest question yet. Of course he wanted the truth, apparently he had been denied it for the past four fucking years. "You moron."

Hesitantly, she told him what he wanted to hear, and what was the truth, too. "For citizenship…"

"Is that my baby?" he asked quickly, catching her off guard, while he pointed to her stomach, "or is it Jacques?"

"I… uh… well…" she hadn't expected him to say that. No. Not it wasn't his, that was what she wanted to say. So she parted her lips but nothing came out.

"Fuck, Kagome," he complained while he ran his hands through his hair. "When the _fuck_ where you going to tell me that?"

"I wasn't!"

"So what's going on to happen to the baby once you're gone?" He shouted so hard that he felt his throat would be sore the next day.

"Kikyou said she'd take care of it! Inuyasha, shut up," she ordered while she pushed him back. "I need you to… to be happy. Get married to that pretty Miyoko woman, have a luxurious life, _forget_ about me. P-please…don't think about me, about this," she choked some on her sobs while she placed her hands on her stomach. "This is the best thing that's happen to me in a long, long time. I couldn't give this up. I just… this is my thing to worry about. Just… let me go. Inuyasha, please go get married."

Whenever Kagome began to cry he couldn't help but give in to what she was asking him… to let her go. To leave her. To forget her…? He wasn't sure if he could do anything of that but he couldn't really process all that had happened anyway so he took a couple of steps backwards, nodded, and left without another word.

What the fuck was going on?

**Ж**

When the going got tough he knew exactly who to go to. When he didn't know what to do there was always one person he could talk to about what was wrong. When he needed advice he had one friend who's door was always open.

It just so happened he was Kagome's cousin, too.

Miroku was more than willing to meet Inuyasha for dinner that night, to hear out everything that happened, from the subtle hints he had gotten from Suikotsu, to the weird way Kikyou had been acting, to what Kagome had all said.. and even about the night at the hotel which apparently made him a father.

"I don't know what the fuck to do," he stated simply in the end. "Kagome said she didn't want to be together… that she wants me to get married to Midoriko. So… what, what should I do?"

"I," Miroku slowly started. He had slowly been processing everything that his friends said. It all made perfect sense, it fit the Kagome he had grown up with perfect, that she'd do something like that to save the man she loved from suffering. _That_ was like Kagome. It never made sense to him that she left Inuyasha with nothing more than a letter and got married to Jacques a month later.

It never added up… until now.

Guilt swarmed within him, he had been horrible to her and all that time she was suffering from Furei? From missing Inuyasha, missing Tokyo, missing her family? Kagome could be so stupid sometimes and too selfless. She shouldn't have had to deal with all of that herself.

"You…?" Inuyasha inquired with a bent brow, "you what? What the hell do you think, Miroku?"

"I think that if Kagome was willing to do all of that for your sake, for your happiness, then you'll never find someone that loves you as greatly as she does. But she's right, you don't have to watch another women you care for die from this disease."

"That doesn't help me," Inuyasha grumbled bitterly while he lied down. He had figured all of that out on his own.

"Do you want me to tell you what to do?" Miroku guessed, "I can't do that. You have to figure out what you want to do yourself. You can either take the out Kagome's giving you and get married to Midoriko, live a probably very fulfilling and easy life or… you could leave her and return to Kagome. She has Furei, she'll eventually die, you'll have to watch her die… like you did your sister and your mother. But you could also have a child… I can't believe you had sex with Kagome and never told me."

"Of course I didn't," he grumbled. He didn't tell anyone. It was a mistake he had every intention of pretending never happened.

"Does Midoriko know what you did?"

"Yeah, remember when we had that off period?" he waited for his friend to nod, "well, she had sex with someone else, too. I just neglected to mention it was Kagome… I was really drunk, so was she."

"It's nice to know a drunken stupor is what led to you becoming a father," Miroku taunted only to receive a harsh kick under the table. "Ouch!"

"Gods, I can't believe this shit is happening," he grumbled bitterly while he rested his face in his hands. Everything that he thought had been true was flipped on its head, for four years he had been lied to, for four years Kagome had been trying to protect him from suffering through watching another woman he loved die from Furei… was he grateful for that?

Did he want to just leave her, ignore her, pretend they never had anything and just get married to Miyoko Midoriko instead? He had no idea. A part of him did. A part wanted to just continue forward with the life he had built for himself, to forget the past completely but another part of him clung to the past - clung to what he had with Kagome.

Begged for him to forgive her, to go to her, to just go back to the way things used to be… but even that part knew how things could never be as they used to be. Too much time has passed by. Too much was different. Too much had happened… the happily ever after that they once thought they'd share couldn't never be realized.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **_ The moment you've all been waiting for… Inuyasha knows._

_So confession time. I've had the first nine chapters of this story written for a while now. Hence why I could give such quick updates. I could hardly just put them all up at once though, now could I? Just like I had most of the chapters of Toyfriend written for a while but now I've got everything I have written for that story and the first 8 chapters of this story uploaded. _

_So, enjoy, review, and all that good stuff._


	9. Severance

******†:**** Diagnosis: Terminal & Needing Him****** :†******  
><em><strong><em>x<em>** **_**_Severance_** x_**_**

**_**_****-•°•°•-****_**_**

Three days had passed by since they had spoken, since Inuyasha had learned the truth, since she had cried her eyes out begging him to do what made him happy—to stay with his fiancé. To get married. To take that chance at his happy ever after.

She couldn't blame him for listening to her. A slim part of her wanted him to come running back and telling her that he'd magically make everything better but… she knew that wasn't possible. And after three days it was unlikely. Following her next appointment with her doctor, though, thoughts of Inuyasha was cast aside.

"I think we might have miscalculated the date of conception," Kobayashi said, "we're going to do an ultrasound to find out the right date."

"Why do you say that?" Kagome inquired, there really wasn't a possibility that the date was wrong. The only time she could have gotten pregnant was when her and Inuyasha had sex that one night in her hotel room. There wasn't anyone before or after him, no other explanation.

"You're rather big for the original date, we must have been off," he explained. She had noticed the sudden growth herself, but didn't think it was strange. She was at that stage in the pregnancy when she started to gain weight. Being told she was "rather big" stung some but she tried not to think about it.

"There really isn't any way the date could be wrong," Kagome asserted while she laid down to wait for the cold goo to be placed on her bump of a belly so that the ultrasound could begin. Kobayashi didn't make a comment on that, he figured that they'd find out soon enough whether she was right. After a while he hummed to himself some while he looked at the gray, black, and white screen.

"I guess you were right…" Kobayashi started cautiously, "the date of conception was right."

"So… is everything alright with the baby?"

"Well," he drew out while he started to clean off the utensil and gave her something to whip her belly. "That's the thing. It's not _a_ baby, it's two. You're having twins, Higurashi-san. Would you like to know the sex of your children?"

Her jaw dropped at that, her eyes widened, her breath hitched itself in her throat. _Twins_…? She was having _twins_? She could have handled one child by herself but _two_? Two and Furei? She couldn't do that by herself… she'd have to take someone up on the offer to live with them.

"Um… yes," she mumbled once she found her voice again.

"It looks like you're having a boy and girl. So they aren't going to be identical twins… having Furei and going through a pregnancy is hard enough, but carry two children to term will be harder. I hate to suggest this, but I think you should consider… just having one."

In other words, terminating her other child? Picking having a boy or a girl? "I… I can't do that."

"It'll be an added strain on your body, one you might not be able to handle, I think you should consult Minamoto-sensei about this."

Of course she would, she _had_ to talk to him about it. Not just because he was her Furei doctor but the man that would raise her children once she was gone. Him and Kikyou. Did they want twins…? Would they still do that for her?

Why couldn't things be easy for her for once?

**Ж**

"Kagome, come here," caught her attention shortly after she got to the ground floor. She was in a daze, still stunned from the news she'd be having twins, her hands cupped her rather big bump. If it had been any other voice she probably wouldn't have realized someone said her name. But it was him… Inuyasha.

So she slowly turned around to see him there, "I thought that was you. What are doing here?"

"Doctor's appointment…" what did it matter to him? Three days had passed by. Shouldn't he just let her go all the way? Because she couldn't handle being 'just friends', he either had to be in it all the way or out of her life completely. She could deal with one or the other but not something in between.

"Is everything alright? You look pale," he stated while he walked up to her, cupping her cheek in one of his hands. His auburn eyes locked with her hazels—she couldn't take that. He could not go acting like _this_ and not be hers. He was going to be Miyoko Midoriko's… not hers.

She had every intention of protesting, of knocking his hand away, but before she could his lips were on hers. Just like that, she became wanton to his touch and she quickly found herself leaning against him with his arms around her. It felt so… nice. So safe within his arms, so warm, so welcoming.

What was going on?

"Inuyasha?" she questioned when she finally pulled away, "what are you doing?"

"You're pregnant with my child—"

She stopped him there, she wasn't sure why, but she had to say, "no I'm not."

His eyes narrowed on her instantly, "you can't take back what you said the other day, Kagome. You can't tell me one day you are and the next day you aren't. You've been lying to me for a long time now, why should I believe this one anymore than I should have the rest?"

Lying was such a harsh term for what she did… she just omitted a lot of the truth. But she didn't want to get into a debate with him about all of that. It wasn't that she was reneging on what she had said, it was just it wasn't _one_ child. "I'm not pregnant with your _child_," she corrected cautiously, "I'm pregnant with your… children."

"What the fuck do you mean _children_?" he inquired instantly as he stepped away from her.

Of course he'd freak out at that news, she had, too. "I'm having twins."

"Twins don't run in my family," he countered, "and they don't run in yours either."

"They're fraternal, that can happen with anyone…" it wasn't as if she had planned it out. She didn't want to have twins, her body might not be able to handle two, so she certainly couldn't deal with him freaking out at her for it like it was _her_ fault.

"Shit, twins," he muttered to himself as he ran his hand through his hair and looked away. Damn it, could more bombshells be dropped on him a shorter period of time? First his ex-fiancé had Furei, then she lied to him about everything and left for his sake, then she turned out to be pregnant with his child and now… _twins_? Twins?

"Inuyasha I'm going to go now," she warned while she took a step away but he snapped out of his stupor to reach out and grab one of her arms to keep her there. "Inuyasha…"

"Come here, we need to talk about all of this—"

"No, we don't, we already did," she reminded him before she pried her arm free ."You're going to get married to Miyoko Midoriko and live happily ever after."

He rolled his eyes at that. "How the fuck can I do that now?"

"Just forget about all of this," obviously, was that really so hard for him? Four years had passed by, he couldn't still care about her… could he?

"You say that like it's easy!" he snapped, "it's not, I can't just pretend like none of this happened. Please just come up stairs with me. Let's talk about this in private."

He really didn't need to go and make a scene in his place of employment. Reluctantly, she gave in and let him lead her up to the fourth floor where his lab and office was. He even went so far as to pull out a chair for her to sit in, she couldn't help but smile. Inuyasha wasn't the most gentlemanly person she knew so the gesture was truly sweet.

"Midoriko and I split up," he began while he pulled a chair up to sit next to her. "I can't get married to her with all this going on."

"Inuyasha," she whined, "why'd you do that?"

"Why do you want me to get married to someone else so badly? Huh? Do you not want to be together? Do you not love me anymore?"

She pressed her lips together and blinked the sting out of her eyes a couple of times before she looked away. How could he ask that? Of course she still loved him! Everything she had done was out of her love for him. "I don't want to make you leave her for me just because I'm pregnant or just because I have Furei… I want you to do what makes you happy, Inuyasha."

"This makes me happy," he insisted while he reached out to grab one of her hands and held it tight. "I couldn't be happy with Midoriko anymore. I _want_ this. I _want_ you."

"I come as a package deal now, Inuyasha," she reminded him after she returned her stare to his.

"No fuck," he retorted. "I can't believe you think I'd bail on my kid—erm, children. Twins… damn, that'll take some time to get use to. Can… can you handle having twins? Furei always adds complications to pregnancies."

"Yeah, I can," no, she had no idea, but she'd try. She couldn't give up one of them regardless of what Suikotsu said.

Of course she'd think she could. He had always known, even when he couldn't stand her for leaving him, that she would have given up anything for a child, or in this case her _children_, and anything this time just so happened to be her health. So, he decided to rephrase the question, "What'd your doctor say?"

"Inuyasha, I can't give up one of them," she stated ever so firmly. "That's not an option."

"You might not have much of a choice," he countered.

"I don't want to think about any of that right now," she snapped while she yanked her hand away from his and covered her face with both of them.

Alright… he could understand that. He didn't really want to have to deal with that at the moment, either. "Kagome, I'm going to take care of you and _our_ children and there is nothing you can do or say that will change my mind so you're just going to have to deal with that. We're going to figure out all this stuff _together_. I… I still love you, Kagome. After everything, I really still love you, so just let me do this, alright?"

"I love you, too," she murmured weakly while she let her hands slid down her face so could see the determination etched into his face. "I really do."

"Good, then we'll figure all of this out together," he stated simply while he took one of her hands back into both of his. "Won't we?"

"I guess," she really didn't have any other option and really she wanted nothing more than to be with _him_ to have him love her again. To raise her children with him.

"We're going to get married—"

"Inuyasha," she complained, she wasn't going to force him to do that.

"Don't use that tone with me," he ordered with narrowed eyes. He had forgotten how often they argued but hearing that tone reminded him. This time he'd win, he'd get what he wanted. "We're going to get married like we should have four years ago, we're going to have these kids together, and we're going to beat Furei."

"Inuyasha…" that all sounded wonder but very far-fetched. She accepted that she wasn't going to get forever, he had to do the same. "No one beats Furei."

"We _will_," he asserted. "We will. Once you have the kids you'll enter into the treatment here at Shikon and you'll get better, like you did in the trail treatment in Paris."

"You'd have to resign your post if I did that…" and that was why she went to Paris, after all, to make sure he didn't have to give up his dream job. The job he loved, the job he lived for.

"I'll transfer to another department, it's not that big of a deal. Do you really think I'd rather have my job than you? Gods, you're so dumb sometimes."

"You're mean," she grumbled with a small pout.

He just shrugged his shoulder at that before he leaned in to press his lips to hers once more. He didn't forgive her fully for what she had done, not yet, but he knew with time he would. With time he'd be able to let go all his grievances and love her like he used to… they were going to have twins together, after all.

They might not get the happily ever after that they had originally planned, but he'd make damn sure that they got something close enough. He wasn't going to lose her a second time. He wasn't going to let her go ever again.

And he sure as hell wasn't going to let Furei take someone else from him.

**Ж**

Utterly blank, Inuyasha's mind could not seem to focus on anything after he left dinner with Miroku four nights ago. He hadn't any idea what to do. It was true, what Miroku said, if Kagome was willing to do all that out of love for him he couldn't find someone else that would love him like that but… what she did wasn't fair. She shouldn't have left him like that, she _should_ have talked to him.

He should have had a choice in the matter. It was his life she was altering, too, and he should have had a say in which way it went. Instead, she left, doing everything on her own. Maybe she was right, maybe it saved him a lot of heartache, or maybe she was completely wrong. The treatments in Tokyo were going great for some patients. Him and his colleagues were hopeful that one or two of them would have Furei go into remission. _She_ could have been one of them.

How the hell could she think that he would rather have stayed a researcher on the Furei treatment than give up his post, move to a different department, and stay by her side throughout everything? It wasn't fair. She shouldn't have done that. Not to them, not to everything they built, and sure as hell not to him.

Still… guilt did start to swell in him in the next day while he thought about it. All the terrible things he had wished upon her. How he had taken some mild delight in her crumbling marriage with Jacques—apparently, that meant really nothing. They had never been more than friends throughout those four years.

He couldn't have been happier during times like those that him and Midoriko had decided against moving in together before getting married. The main reason was that neither could agree on which apartment they'd move into. Midoriko's was much bigger, fancier, and in the best part of Tokyo but Inuyasha loved his apartment. He had been living there since Kagome left him and it was plenty big enough for Midoriko and him, hell there was even a study and a spare bedroom.

It was also just a five minute drive from work and a twenty minute walk, he could almost see Shikon out his bedroom window and if not for the tall other apartment complexes he surely could. Once or twice throughout that day he caught himself wandering over to the spare bedroom, the one he had just in case a guest decided to stay over, and subtly thinking about making it into a nursery.

But then he'd shake his head and force himself to stop. Kagome had told him she didn't want him to be a part of her life anymore, to be a part of their child's, so why the hell should he? He could just take the out she gave him and get married to Midoriko—the woman who _hadn't_ hurt him. It was really very tempting to take that out. To pretend like none of that had ever happened.

Four fucking years had passed by, he had thought he had gotten Kagome out of his system but… she came back and memories of the way things used to be began to creep to the surface. So much so that he found himself pulling out a shoebox he kept on the top shelf in his closest, all the keepsakes he didn't throw away from the many years he had shared with Kagome still inside.

The night after she had confessed the truth to him he found himself sitting on his bed with all the photos spread across the bed, a scrapbook with tickets and a wide range of other things tucked away inside wide open in front of him, and some things she had even forgotten when she packed up and left… and of course, that stupid fucking note she left him was on the top of the pile. The one he had read somewhere around a thousand times.

Inuyasha wasn't one to scrapbook, of course, it had been something that Kagome had made him as an anniversary gift in college. Back when they were both too broke to buy real gifts for each other. He wasn't the sentimental type, but he had loved it anyway.

There were pictures of them when they were kids all the way up to his senior year in college. Looking through that book the first time was what made him realize he wanted to marry her. What prompted him to go ring shopping and spend money he didn't have on the perfect engagement ring… to get down on one knee and ask her to be his for the rest of their lives.

_Kagome_ was the one to ruin that, not him.

Still… the next day he found himself at Midoriko's and sat her down so that they could have a "talk". It was apparent from the look on his fiancé's face that she was worried about whatever he was about to say. Their "talks" never really went well and with a week before the wedding her worst fear was cold feet.

"Inuyasha, what's wrong?" she finally asked with a tilt of her head.

"We need to talk about some things…"

"You said that already," she said with annoyance, "what _things_?"

He really didn't know how to say it all, or where to even begin, so he supposed there was no better place than the start. "There's something I never told you. A little over four years ago I was engaged. I almost got married…"

"Why," she slowly started, "have you never told me this before?"

"Because it hurt like hell, she left me a month before the wedding, with just a note and went off to marry some other guy in France," he grumbled, he couldn't help but still be a bit bitter about the damned note.

"That's harsh," she supposed that was really all she could say about it. "And you're telling me about this now because…?"

"Higurashi Kagome…"

"Souta's sister?" Midoriko asked with a bent brow, she was about to inquiry as to what she had to do with the conversation before something struck her. She had just moved home from _France_ and was getting a divorce. "_She_ was the one you were getting married to?"

"Yeah," he mumbled before taking a breath in, "she was. We had been together for a long time, we've known each other our whole lives… she was diagnosed with Furei before she left me, she took it upon herself to leave so that I didn't have to suffer through watching her die from it like I did my sister and mom. She only got married to Jacques—the French guy—so she could get into the treatment in Paris. Midoriko… you know how we had that off time not too long ago? When we both spelt with someone else…?"

It took a while for Midoriko to process all that he had just said, surely she had no idea what to make of it, until his last question worked its way through her mind. Instantly, her eyes widened before she slowly, spitefully, said, "you better not be telling me the one you had sex with was her, Inuyasha…"

He swallowed at that. "You had sex with your ex, too."

"My ex-_boyfriend_, not my ex-_fiancé_! The latter is much worse!"

He supposed that was true, and that had been why he never told her… she was hardly going to like what he had to say next any better than the rest of his story. "Midoriko… you know how she's pregnant?"

Her eyes just widened more before she stood up and walked around the kitchen table, taking a series of deep breaths, "Inuyasha, if this is your way of telling me that baby is yours I'm going to kill you!"

That wasn't good… he hardly wanted to die so he just pressed his lips together and looked away. That was all it took for her, that was a _yes I'm going to be a daddy_ so she screamed slightly and the next thing he knew he felt a sharp, but small, thud against his head. With a raised brow he looked to see what it was… the engagement ring he had gotten her.

"Midoriko," he slowly started while he stood up.

"You're leaving me for her, aren't you?" she hissed, "well, fuck that! I'm leaving you first!"

"I'm sorry, Midoriko…" really, he was. He didn't want to be the one to hurt her. He did love her, and the very, very last thing he wanted to do was cause someone the same pain that Kagome had caused him. For a brief moment he found himself beyond frustrated with Kagome—blaming her for the whole situation.

If she never left him, then he wouldn't be the one breaking someone's heart like she did his. Everyone attached to her series of lies got hurt one way or another. She was such a stupid bitch sometimes.

But when dishes began to get thrown at him along with a series of complaints by Midoriko those thoughts quickly exited his mind as he ran away, avoiding the pots, pans, and tea cups that were being thrown at him all the while.

Really, he deserved that, though…

After that it took some time for him to decide what he wanted to actually do. He had a couple of options but getting married to Midoriko wasn't one of them. Obviously he had an intention of being a part of his child's life, but how he'd handle him and Kagome took another day for him to sort out. There were still feelings there, probably even love, and he knew she did what she did for him but… damn, it still hurt.

He supposed he'd be with her, try to make it work again for their child's sake, or they could be some sort of make-shift family. They could just stay friends, he could just be there to support her, and be a father for his son or daughter. If he had to raise the child mostly of his own, a very real possibility since she had Furei, he wanted a son. He could do a better job raising a son than a daughter… but if he was going to have Kagome's help forever—if she magically got better—than he wanted a girl to spoil.

Uncertainty was still coursing through him as he went to work that Monday, he hadn't seen or talked to Kagome in three days. He didn't mean to make her wait that long for his decision, he just didn't want to rush into anything. To say he'd do one thing when he wasn't _completely_ sure of it… but when he saw her on the ground floor with a zoned out, strange look on her face and hands on her rounding belly he felt ridiculously worried.

Why was she there again? Did she really need to go to the doctors _that_ much?

And that's when it hit him—if he could feel so much dread so quickly for her, then he still loved her. He _wanted_ to be with her. He'd do anything to make it work again, to be with her like they should have been together all those years. He could forget the last four years, pretend like they never happened, and find a way to be happy with Kagome again.

To somehow beat Furei.

And that's why he said, "Kagome, come here." So he could tell her all that, so he could whip her worries away, so he could make her happy again. Kagome had been the center of his world for so long that he was sure it wouldn't be hard to put her there again. There would just be another addition, their child.

Though, at the time, he had no way of knowing that it would really be their _children_.

* * *

><p><strong><em>AN:_**_ Okay, a couple things. One, I just wanted to make it twins, I didn't decide that until after I had already published a couple of chapters and went back and started to re-read and revise things. Whether they would have found that out sooner or not whatever. It's a fanfic, meaning _fiction. _Two, this chapter took longer to update than the rest because I broke it apart. After the second section I just had the first two sections from chapter 10 and then thought I'd be done with it. Three, I don't know why it didn't work when I uploaded it the first time._


	10. Their End

******†:**** Diagnosis: Terminal & Needing Him****** :†******  
><em><strong><em>x<em>** Their End **_x_**_**

**_**_****-•°•°•-****_**_**

It took a while for the dust to settle from everything that had happened. Inuyasha breaking off his engagement so close to the wedding upset the Miyoko family deeply, particularly his bride-to-be. And those at his work were hardly pleased with him, after all the family donated a lot of their money to Furei research. They all figured that he had ruined it for them. That there would be no more money…

But there was. Midoriko's father felt like the research was more important than a family grudge against one of the researchers and when Inuyasha announced he'd be moving to a different department anyway the money started to flow in like it once had. Then there was the family factor that had to be addressed.

Shortly after Inuyasha found out Kagome shared the news she had Furei with the rest of her family. After all, she had just kept it from them because she didn't want Inuyasha to find out… needless to say, anyone who did not know was devastated to hear it. That wasn't the only thing she had to tell them, either.

She was going to be having twins… and Inuyasha was the father, not Jacques. Again she sent her family into shock but since Inuyasha was there with her for her announcements, holding her hand even, they slowly discovered the truth of everything. It took a while for all to process everything, but once they did they were happy to hear that the two were back together and on the same track they were four years ago.

Preparing to get married.

Kagome was not so certain that was what she wanted. Was Inuyasha wanting to marry her merely because she was going to be the mother of his children or because he really still loved her that much? She _really_ did love him that much, she wanted to be able to call him her husband, and that was why she went through with the very small, purely family, ceremony. It wasn't the wedding she had always dreamed of—in that she didn't have a rounded belly, wasn't pregnant already, and there were a lot more flowers—but it was far better than the first time she got married.

This time, she actually loved the man. But her mind was broken from such reflections while she laid in the bed she shared with her new husband, staring aimlessly up at the ceiling and with a hand on her still growing stomach.

"You shouldn't have left four years ago," Inuyasha stated rather randomly. Reluctantly she pried her eyes away from the ceiling fan to meet his gaze, a curiously raised brow was all she gave him in reply. "Things worked out the same exact way they would have if you had stayed. Now we're just late four years on everything… and having kids before we were even married for a while."

Like they had originally planned, for the two of them children had always been in the future. They had always agreed that once they got married they'd give it a couple of years then start on a family. Originally, that was because Inuyasha was working as a resident at Shikon and didn't have much time to even do the deed let alone deal with being a dad. That and they'd have to save up money for a while before they'd feel comfortable bringing a child—something usually very expensive—into the world.

Still, months after he found out the truth, he held mild resentment for her. She had caused him great pain and he had never really been one for forgiveness anyway. She supposed she'd have to deal with that for the rest of her life… however short that might be.

"I'm sorry," she whispered back, what else could she say? He didn't know that for a fact. She might not have gotten the same results from the Furei treatment in Tokyo as she had in Paris, she could be dead by then already. There were a lot of factors, and they would never really know if things would be different if Kagome hadn't left.

"I know," he said with a sigh. He knew she was sorry and he no longer really held it against her, though he neglected to tell her that. She did what she did out of some sort of love for him and there was no changing that. It just annoyed the hell out of him sometimes when he reflected on it. "It's just… that's so much time that we lost and we aren't going to get back… I want that time back."

"Inuyasha," she whispered while she reached out to take one of his hands. "Everything will work out."

He'd be a great father, whether he believed that or not, and her family would always be there to help him so she _knew_ all would be fine. Whether she was a part of her children's life or not… she knew they'd have a good one. A great one, even.

He wanted to say 'I hope so' but instead he said something far more definite for her sake, to try and reassure her, "of course it will. You'll safely have the twins then enter into the Furei treatment here in Tokyo. I already talked with them, they'd be happy to take you. Then you'll get better like you did in France."

"Right," she replied, instead of whispering the 'I hope so' that she wanted to. For his sake, she'd pretend she believed all of that. For his sake, she'd do anything. "I love you, Inuyasha, very much."

"I know that," how could he not after everything she had done to try and protect him? It had taken a while but all the feeling he thought had gotten rid of for her returned. He could say with complete conviction, "I love you, too."

Because he did… he just feared the slimming possibility of their happy ever after. The one they thought they'd always have. The one he had always wanted with her… the one he didn't know what he'd do without.

**Ж**

Aiko the girl, Aki the boy, two perfectly healthy twins were given to them. Throughout the pregnancy there were many ups and downs, plenty of times were Inuyasha found himself wondering whether children were worth the toll it was taking on Kagome's health. He still wasn't a hundred percent sure but when he got to hold his kids he decided it was at least partially worth it.

The joy of the knowledge that her children were fine brought a beautiful smile to her. One he was relieved to see. One he'd remember forever.

As soon as the kids were home, Kagome found herself back at the hospital to enter the Furei treatment at Shikon just like Inuyasha had always sad. Her health had diminished quiet a bit throughout the pregnancy, Suikotsu was certain she was close to the stage where her illness was always obvious. Soon she'd almost always have a high fever, she'd cough up a storm, have headaches around the clock, and find herself throwing up often.

Inuyasha didn't know what he'd do if she got to the stage, it was always the shortest, and _always_ led to the last stage… the deathbed, when those with Furei couldn't even get out of bed. The stage where there was no turning back, the one that meant they'd be dead soon. He couldn't lose her so soon.

There was really no way in hell that he could figure out how to raise a child on his own, let alone two.

"You'll manage," Kagome assured him as she squeezed his hands tight while he helped her up so that they could leave the treatment center. He had always known that the sessions wore out their patients but it never bothered him before… he knew, for the most part, it helped them more than hurt but watching it happen to Kagome…

It was ten times harder.

"You'll have our family's help," she reminded him while he wrapped an arm around her waist to lead her back to his car. "Mom, Souta, Miroku, Kikyou, everyone."

"Stop it, Kagome," he ordered softly. He didn't want to think like that and he sure as hell didn't want her thinking like that, either. They were going to beat this. They were going to live happily ever after somehow.

For his sake, she'd stop and just smile at him while they walked to the car. Like the gentlemen he really wasn't, he opened the door to let her in to the passenger side before going over and getting behind the wheel.

"Inuyasha," she slowly started as he began the car. He just glanced at her briefly to show he was paying attention then pulled out of the parking space. "I'm really worried about Aiko and Aki…"

"Why?" he asked with a raised brow, "they're perfectly healthy two month olds and your mom is babysitting them right now. What could have gone wrong in the four hours we've been at Shikon?"

"That's not what I mean," she muttered weakly, "you… have Furei family history and so do I. One of them, if not both, is probably going to get it."

"Kagome," he groaned, "why do you have to always think like that? By the time they're thirty I'm sure there will be a proper treatment if not a cure. Don't worry about it."

"Still…" they couldn't be sure of that, and she'd feel _so_ guilty if one of her baby's died because of a gene she passed to them. "I worry…"

"How about you worry about yourself every once and a while, alright?"

"It's easier saying it than doing it," she replied softly. But, like with so many things, for him she'd try to. For him she'd do just about anything, so she found her smile once more as she reached out to take his hand into hers, rubbing his skin with her thumb.

The life they had wasn't a perfect one. Certainly, she'd die before him—though, they both hoped that it wouldn't be for a long while—but she was content with it. Far happier with the life she had then than she could have been if she kept her diagnosis a secret. In a way, everyone was terminal.

Someday everyone would die, her time might be a bit sooner than the rest, but she'd make damn sure it wasn't _too_ soon.

**Ж**

For four years he had lost her, that was time they'd never get back, and he often caught himself still lamenting over that fact years later even after he could watch the twins laugh and play. The last thing he wanted was to lose her… though she had full confidence in his abilities, he wasn't so sure how well he could handle the twins alone.

They were a handful, and how through the treatment and Furei side-effects Kagome was able to keep Aiko and Aki in line was beyond him. When he was at a loss of how to get the two to stop fighting, she'd just walk into the room, clap her hands, talk sternly to the toddlers, and get them to behave. It was like magic.

But he had always known she'd make a great mom. There had never been a question about it. By the time they were four the two had a well established support system, one Kagome made every effort to put into place for them once she was gone. They had their aunt Sango and uncle Miroku, and their four cousins from them, then aunt Sachiko and uncle Souta and their one cousin there, and uncle Suikotsu and aunt Kikyou with their adoptive twin cousins, then grandma Higurashi and great-grandpa Higurashi.

They'd be perfectly fine… even though, more than anything, she didn't want to leave them. How could she? She had never loved anything like she did her twins. Four years ago, before she even had them, she had thought she'd be fine. She thought she accepted the fact that she'd be gone someday soon.

"Four years," Inuyasha murmured while he held her hands gently in his, letting her slid her fingers in between his up and down like she liked to. A small smile on her face. It was the simplest things that she loved the most lately. "We've been together again for over four years now… the twins are _already_ four. I can't believe it. It seems like just yesterday they were constantly crying and refusing to sleep in their cradles… now they just fight over who gets to play with which toy. Time seems to pass by so quickly."

"Mm-hm," she hummed with a nod of her head, she had thought the same thing a week ago when they threw their children a birthday party. That and she was _so_ happy she made it that long. Some points throughout the four years she had felt horrible, so much so that she let herself think that if she just let go everything would be better… and if she didn't have Aiko and Aki she just might have.

Instead, she fought on and for months the treatment seemed to be working well. She had been feeling significantly better as of late. The headaches had dissipated, the fevers were infrequent at most, the nausea hadn't been a problem in months, and she dare say she felt... fine. But she knew better than to think too much on that. It had happened before, and weeks afterwards she felt worse than ever. It was a cycle, one she wished she didn't need to continue going through over and over again.

"I love you, Kagome."

Finally, she looked up from their hands to meet his gaze, "I love you, too."

"Hello, you two," Suikotsu greeted as he finally came into the room they had been waiting in for what seemed like hours for the results of her latest tests.

"Suikotsu," Inuyasha replied with a nod his head. "So, how is she?"

"I feel a lot better than before," Kagome stated, but she knew just because she felt one way didn't necessarily mean she _was_ better. The smile that crept up her cousin-in-law's face assured her that just maybe it was a truly good sign for once.

"I have great news," he told them while he handed over the test results to Inuyasha, so he could see for himself. "It looks like Kagome's Furei has gone into remission, just like the others in the treatment. So far, the ones that went into it haven't had it resurface. One has had Furei in remission for over three years now. In France, there's one that's had it in remission for four years. This is a very, very good sign."

A small, unreal, laugh left Kagome's lips as she slid off the examining table to hug her doctor. She had dreamed that such a fate would become a reality but she had never risen her hopes _that_ high. Maybe… just maybe everything would be alright after all?

"Inuyasha," Kagome gleeful called out while she spun around to look at her husband, who still stared, unblinking, at the results that Suikotsu had given him. Apparently it hadn't sunk in yet… they beat Furei. He had always said they would, constantly told her that this would eventually happen, and that they'd get to live into old age together and watch Aiko and Aki grow up and get married _together_ but… but he had always thought in the back of his head that that wouldn't happen.

That he'd lose her before he should have to… but he didn't now.

He barely looked up from the file before he felt a pair of arms flung around his neck to hold him tight. All he could think to do was wrap his arms around her in reply. Somehow everything was going to work out for them. Their end, the time he had always worried about, was a far, far, ways away now.

Finally, fate appeared to be on their side.

* * *

><p><strong>AN**: _Yes, this is the end of the story. I had always planned on a happy ending. I know those can't always be guaranteed in stories by me but I felt after all the ups and downs (mostly downs) throughout the story a happy ending was needed. It's really a happy ending in so far as she's not dying soon. Remission doesn't necessarily mean cured or anything like that._

_Thank you everyone who reviewed throughout the story and who will continue to review even though it is now complete. I really appreciated them all. I hope you've enjoyed the story and found the ending to your liking. _

_Anyway, thank you everyone. _

_On a side note, I haven't been able to write more than a couple words of any story but this one. So... the likelihood of me updating another story in the near future is unlikely. I think I might have writer's block... I hate that._


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